How to make an anchor: it's been an amazing weekend in the People's Republic of Hillswick: My neighbour, blacksmith Bruce Wilcock, has masterminded the hand-forging of a full-size naval anchor, using Victorian technology. The local Amenity Trust paid for three top Yorkshire blacksmiths to come to Shetland, and with Bruce and a local Shetland smith, it took just three days to make the anchor from odd pieces of scrap and salvaged iron. A DVD of the entire project will be available in due course, but this is the completed anchor, with the guys whose muscle power made it. Welding takes on a whole different perspective when it's done by several men wielding hammers on white-hot metal. Pictured: (l to r) Michael, Mark, Bruce, Ian, David.