Joe Price, the Gloucester Blacksmith & Strongman

[DannyBoy]

I came across this article that was published 3 days ago concerning an exhibition by the Gloucester City Museum celebrating the life of legendary Gloucester blacksmith & strongman Joe Price:

Gloucester blacksmith and strongman Joe Price remembered in exhibition at Gloucester City Museum | Gloucester Citizen

Joe Price was the master farrier at the Bearland forge in Longsmith Street in Gloucester, England. He did a lot of training & leverage work with sledgehammers and even released a sledgehammer training course circa 1926. Price was also the amateur British Heavyweight Weightlifting Champion in 1922 & 1923, as well as being awarded the gold medal for the 1928 British Horseshoeing Championship by The Worshipful Company of Farriers.

[peter yates]

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP DANNY. I REMEMBER SEEING A PHOTO OF PRICE KNOCKING A NAIL IN THE WALL WITH A HUGE SLEDGE HAMMER IN ONE HAND. I WILL TRY TO LOCATE IT.
REGARDS, PETER.

[DannyBoy]

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP DANNY. I REMEMBER SEEING A PHOTO OF PRICE KNOCKING A NAIL IN THE WALL WITH A HUGE SLEDGE HAMMER IN ONE HAND. I WILL TRY TO LOCATE IT.
REGARDS, PETER.

You're welcome Peter. Now I hope you don't mind me posting it & that you didn't go to too much trouble locating it, but I know exactly the photo you were referring to and where to find it.



^I've read that it's a 50lb sledgehammer Joe Price is using there.

Here's another cool photo of Price balancing a roadwork barrier in his teeth.

[peter yates]

HI DANNY,
DO NOT MIND AT ALL. THANKS FOR DOING THE LEG WORK. I LOVE THAT PHOTO AS HE LOOKS SO NONCHALANT AS IF IT IS THE MOST PERFECTLY NATURAL THING TO BE DOING.
REGARDS, PETER.

[DannyBoy]

HI DANNY,
DO NOT MIND AT ALL. THANKS FOR DOING THE LEG WORK. I LOVE THAT PHOTO AS HE LOOKS SO NONCHALANT AS IF IT IS THE MOST PERFECTLY NATURAL THING TO BE DOING.
REGARDS, PETER.

LOL! I know, right?!

Perhaps it was natural for Joe Price to hammer in a nail with a 50lb sledgehammer, lol. He certainly had the grip & forearm strength for it if he actually did do that and the photo wasn't just for publicity or something. Now your average person, they probably couldn't correctly wield a 50lb sledgehammer two-handed, much less with one hand. And many of those strong enough to actually wield such a sledgehammer one-handed probably wouldn't have enough grip/forearm strength to properly control the sledgehammer to the point where they didn't end up accidentally smashing their fingers or putting the whole nail & part of the sledge head through the wall. Me personally, I'd love to workout with a 50lb sledgehammer, but I think I'll skip attempting to drive nails into a wall with one. I'll just stick to a regular ol' claw hammer for my everyday nail driving needs, lol.

[DannyBoy]

Here's film of Joe Price from 1928, mostly featuring him blacksmithing, but at the end he performs a cool feat of grip strength (it begins at 2:07 of the video).

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdEg58Ztx2o[/video]

^If Steve or Paul sees this, have either of you ever tried that feat before?

[Mobster]

In a word - no. However, I'm off the opinion that 90% of these things I can train for and, within reason (usually just the god awful pain lol) there's few feats I haven't had a go at and done to a decent level. One exception, in which Paul kicks my ass big time, is packs of cards tearing. I just can't do it (I also never really, really worked hard to try).

Remembering some of the feats of strength I've seen I seem to recall there is a knack to it - although you need to be strong of course - but nevertheless. As an example note how the lads pulling have NOTHING to anchor themselves too. Their feet are slipping. The other issue, be they men or horses, is that the strongman MUST hold on. If he doesn't the risk of injury is huge. At the very least you'd tear skin.

I do like the idea of having a crack at the hammer and nail trick. I've a 22lb long handled hammer here I think I could do it with. The issue is, as it is always, is that I have other stuff I wanna do first. Right now I'm still in training for the events at Andy Bolton's competition. I umming and ahhing about the Grip Lift events in St Petersburg, Russia for May (I'm thinking the 2017 one). I'm on the cusp because, at 51 / 52 (as I'll be later this year) it's becoming harder to be strong enough to win and kick ass as opposed to be strong full stop. I don't just wanna 'take part' I wanna kick butt!!

[peter yates]

HI STEVE,
THAT IS PROBLEM ISN'T IT? YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING JUST NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME. YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE WHAT IS A PRIORITY. ANYWAY 52 OR NOT I RECKON YOU CAN STILL KICK SOME ASS AND TAKE SOME NAMES. GOOD LUCK WHICH EVER COMPS YOU DECIDE TO ENTER.
REGARDS, PETER.

[DannyBoy]

In a word - no. However, I'm off the opinion that 90% of these things I can train for and, within reason (usually just the god awful pain lol) there's few feats I haven't had a go at and done to a decent level. One exception, in which Paul kicks my ass big time, is packs of cards tearing. I just can't do it (I also never really, really worked hard to try).

Remembering some of the feats of strength I've seen I seem to recall there is a knack to it - although you need to be strong of course - but nevertheless. As an example note how the lads pulling have NOTHING to anchor themselves too. Their feet are slipping. The other issue, be they men or horses, is that the strongman MUST hold on. If he doesn't the risk of injury is huge. At the very least you'd tear skin.

I do like the idea of having a crack at the hammer and nail trick. I've a 22lb long handled hammer here I think I could do it with. The issue is, as it is always, is that I have other stuff I wanna do first. Right now I'm still in training for the events at Andy Bolton's competition. I umming and ahhing about the Grip Lift events in St Petersburg, Russia for May (I'm thinking the 2017 one). I'm on the cusp because, at 51 / 52 (as I'll be later this year) it's becoming harder to be strong enough to win and kick ass as opposed to be strong full stop. I don't just wanna 'take part' I wanna kick butt!!

Thanks for the reply & the insight Steve, I certainly see what you're saying. I wish you much good fortune at Andy Bolton's grip competition as well as the competition in Russia if you decide to go this year &/or next year. Same as Peter, I reckon you can still kick some butt & take names, be it at 51, 52, 53 or whatever age.

[Paul Shaw]

The feat looks really great but all is not as it seems once the hand is closed with the handles held tight the only way for the handles to separate is for the hand to tear apart eek.

I believe Edward Aston originated the feat when he had someone's pet monkey grip his hand and pull him towards the cage (must have been like trying to pull a chocolate eclair out of Dave Gentles grip).
Edward couldn't get away from the monkey and investigated this type of grip developing the feat from there.

Don't let Steve modesty fool you he is a force to be recorded with and even pretended I had hurt him when I gave him a crushing handshake last time we met ha
Paul