Free Republic

World Championship Blacksmiths' Competition Tong Making Class. The Competitors had 45 min. to make a pair of Hot Fitting tongs out of 3/4 round stock with the reins already ran out. Jul 11, 2011

The Irish Forge exhibit at Virginia's Frontier Culture Museum is housed in a building originally constructed in County Fermanagh, Ulster (Northern Ireland). The rustic architecture of this blacksmith's shop is typical of buildings constructed in northern and western Ireland at that time: solid stone construction, whitewashed, with a thatch roof. Inside, a Museum guide who knows what he's doing demonstrates how ironwork was made in the 18th century.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Funeral services will be held for a famed South Carolina blacksmith who died this week. The Harleston Boags Funeral Home of Charleston says that the Saturday funeral for Philip Simmons has been moved to the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium to accommodate the large crowd that's expected.

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...