Worked in The Forge with local drunk (8)
I believe the answer is:
hammered
'worked' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'forge with local drunk' is the wordplay.
'forge' becomes 'hammer' ('hammer' can be a synonym of 'forge').
'with local drunk' becomes 'ed' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hammer'+'ed'='HAMMERED'
'in the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hammered that I've seen before include "Beat hollow" , "Soundly beaten" , "Thoroughly beaten (colloq.)" , "Hit hard" , "Forged" .)