Blacksmithing

“ Past the forge, whence the cheery chink, chink of the blacksmith's hammer came mingled with the refrain of a stirring melody from a good bass voice; under the spreading yew-trees of the churchyard, and out through the lych-gate to the old mill, where the great wheel was turning slowly round, its dripping blades gleaming bright in the sunshine; up the steep path through the little hazel-wood, scrambling over the ladder-like stile into the narrow lane that ran ever uphill towards the mountains, which loomed before them, rugged in outline, and shaded in a mist of purple blue. ”

“ The Romans were not skilled in the working of iron, although well conversant with the manufacture of bronze objects.
Remains of iron hasps, escutcheons, window grilles, candlesticks, folding chairs, &c., have been found in France and in England, of the Romano-Gaulish and British periods, that have a great similarity of style, and, indeed, up to the fifteenth century the style and design of iron work in both countries were pretty much alike.
The most interesting examples of the blacksmith’s art of the Middle Ages—in England especially—are the hinges to the church doors. ”

“ Some of my readers may, perhaps, remember that English blacksmiths are equally independent of lucifer matches, flint and steel, and other recognised modes of fire-raising. They place a small piece of soft iron on the anvil, together with some charcoal-dust, and hammer it furiously. The result is that enough heat is evolved to light the charcoal, and so to enable the blacksmith to set to work. ”

“ Old Christian sprung the calks on the horn of the anvil, and returned the shoe. The hunchback thrust his hand between the calks, raised the shoe and squinted along its surface to see if it were entirely level. Then he nodded his head.
The blacksmith went over to the wall, and began to take down a paper box. The hunchback saw him and turned under the horse. "We can't risk a store nail," he said. "You 'll have to make 'em."
For the first time the man spoke. "No iron," he answered.
Ump arose and began to look over the shop. Presently he found an old scythe blade and threw it to the smith. ”

“ Only the close daily supervision of an expert and years of practice will enable a smith to know when the eye of his fire is large enough—but not too large ... when the forced draft of his bellows has made the fire hot enough—but not too hot ... when his iron is red enough—but not too red ... when his hammer blows fall heavily enough—but not too heavily to accomplish the particular job at hand.
Readers unfamiliar with the processes and products of a smithy are likely to be strangers also to many of the smith’s tools—which makes for something of a problem in trying to describe them. ”

“ The smith's tools were of many sorts; but the chief were his hammer, pincers, chisel, tongs, and anvil. It is astonishing what a variety of articles he turned out of his smithy by the help of these rude implements. In the tooling, chasing, and consummate knowledge of the capabilities of iron, he greatly surpassed the modern workman; for the mediaeval blacksmith was an artist as well as a workman. The numerous exquisite specimens of his handicraft which exist in our old gateways, church doors, altar railings, and ornamented dogs and andirons, still serve as types for continual reproduction. ”

“ Close by stood piled up mat-sacks of charcoal, with a couple of boys ready to supply the fuel, and about two yards off was a smaller smithy, where the iron was shaped into hammers, axes, war-hatchets, spears, knives, swords, wire, iron balls with spikes, leglets, armlets, iron beads, etc. The art of the blacksmith is of a high standard in these forests, considering the loneliness of the inhabitants. ”

“ A larger stone serves the purpose of an anvil, and a smaller stone does duty for a hammer. Sometimes the hammer is made of a conical piece of iron, but in most cases a stone is considered sufficient. The rough work of hammering the iron into shape is generally done by the chief blacksmith’s assistants, of whom he has several, all of whom will pound away at the iron in regular succession. The shaping and finishing the article is reserved by the smith for himself. The other tools are few and simple, and consist of punches and rude pincers made of two rods of iron. ”

“ The natives of Southern Africa are wonderful proficients in forging iron, and indeed a decided capability for the blacksmith’s art seems to be inherent in the natives of Africa, from north to south and from east to west. None of the tribes can do very much with the iron, but the little which they require is worked in perfection. As is the case with all uncivilized beings, the whole treasures of the art are lavished on their weapons; and so if we wish to see what an African savage can do with iron, we must look at his spears, knives, and arrows—the latter indeed being but spears in miniature. ”

“ By the time the final tapping duet begins, everything about them is shining—their eyes, their teeth, their whole faces—in fact they shine all over, for they keep crowding together more and more closely, and it is by no means cool. “Die Schmiede im Walde” (“The Forge in the Forest”) scarcely heightens their pleasure; it is true that the enjoyment is great and general, but the blacksmith is a familiar figure of everyday life, and the rhythm of his hammer as well known to them as it is to us. ”

“ The blacksmith operates in wrought iron and steel, and, from these materials, he fabricates a great variety of articles, essential to domestic convenience, and to the arts generally.
2. This business is one of those trades essential in the rudest state of society. Even the American Indians are so sensible of its importance, that they cause to be inserted in the treaties which they make with the United States, an article stipulating for a blacksmith to be settled among them, and for a supply of iron. ”

“ The smith is often spoken of colloquially as the blacksmith, a title which, while it has not itself a place in our nomenclature, reminds us of others that have, and of a peculiar custom of earlier days. The word ‘blacksmith’ dates from the days of ‘Cocke Lorelle’s Bote,’ and it is quite evident that at that time it was customary for the smith to have his name compounded with sobriquets according to the colour of the metal upon which he spent his energies. ”

“ Travelling from the Anglo-Saxon period to other lands and recent times, we come to Abyssinia, where the trade of blacksmith is hereditary, and considered as more or less disgraceful, from the fact that blacksmiths are, with very rare exceptions, believed to be all sorcerers, and are opprobriously called 'Bouda.' They are supposed to have the power of turning themselves into hyænas, and sometimes into other animals; as being, in fact, either tormented by or allied with evil spirits, like the Middle-Age saints. ”

“ The crescent hinge may have had a symbolical meaning, perhaps Scandinavian, or it may have originated in the Saracenic crescent, and may have been brought from Sicily, the birthplace of Norman architecture.
The art of the blacksmith in the Middle Ages was more developed in France than in any other country of Europe, and the art of stamping the leaves, stems, and rosettes with steel or chilled iron dies and punches was practised there earlier than the thirteenth century, and at a period a little later in England. ”

“ Madden, the blacksmith's wife, whilst the blacksmith himself brought a horse shoe, polished to the brightness of a silver mirror, for the little lady who had loved to stand beside the flaming forge, watching the sparks fly up, as his huge hammer struck the anvil. ”

“ Nominoë rose, took up and opened his traveling wallet, and drew from it the iron head of a heavy blacksmith's hammer.
"Look at this, Bertha! This shall be joined to our family relics—sad and painful relics of a serf family."
"What sort of a hammer is that? It carries, cut into the iron head the Breton words Ez-Libr."
"They mean To Be Free. It was the device of Tankeru the blacksmith. He used this hammer as his weapon during the insurrection. I arrived this morning before dawn in the forest of Mezlean, feeling greatly alarmed over the fate of Tina's father. ”

“ It is recommended to the reader who wants to know the nature and uses of these and other tools in a smithy that he become an apprentice to the nearest blacksmith; there is no better way to learn.
Certainly no one can learn to anneal, braze, case-harden, temper, lay, and weld iron just by reading about it. But we can at least offer some definitions:
Annealing is the process of softening steel so that it can be worked by cutting tools. It is done by heating the piece in the fire to blood-red heat, then allowing it to cool slowly. ”

“ The blacksmith's shop, the centre of the primitive civilization, had soon an expectant group in its widely flaring doors, for the smith had had enough of the war, and had come back to wistfully, hopelessly haunt his anvil like some uneasy ghost visiting familiar scenes in which he no more bears a part;—a minié-ball had shattered his stanch hammer-arm, and his duties were now merely advisory to a clumsy apprentice. ”

“ For tongs, the smiths generally use a bullet-mold, while they formerly took two straight pieces of iron, or, if they had nothing better, two sticks. A stone is made to serve as an anvil. Iron beads and bracelets are made, and the last are adorned with some neatly engraved pattern. Some of the rings of which I have obtained specimens, which have been simply turned upon a stick and welded, would do credit to a European smith. I have seen copper bracelets that had been bent into a spiral shape resembling a coiled snake. ”

“ Said of a man who attempts to do work he is not fitted for. When the blacksmith sees that the iron is soft,he will raise himself to the stroke. Will the blacksmith be alarmed at the sound of a hammer? When a child is born in a blacksmith's family, sugar must be dealt out in the street of the dancing girls. This has reference to the legendary relation of the Kammālans and Kaikōlans. A blacksmith's shop, and the place in which donkeys roll themselves, are alike. The carpenters and blacksmiths are to be relegated, i.e., to the part of the village called the Kammālachēri. ”

“ The offensive arms must have been defective, owing to the ignorance of steel. Iron, silver, and gold were all used in making or ornamenting arms, besides the more common bronze. With the welding of iron, and the use of a kind of solder, the workmen in those days appear to have been familiar.
The necklaces, eardrops, rings, brooches, collars, crowns, goblets, salvers, and vases, manufactured of the precious metals or the finer sorts of bronze, and often set with precious stones, may be enumerated as the chief articles of the jeweler’s and silversmith’s trade. ”

“ The rig drew up in front of the blacksmith-shop, and twenty men came walking there to give it welcome.
"Howdy, stranger?" said the blacksmith, as he came from his forge, bareheaded, his leathern apron tied about his waist, his sleeves rolled up, and his big, hairy arms akimbo. "Pleasant day. You're needin' somethin' fixed, I see," and he nodded quietly towards a road-side job of mending at the doubletree, which was roughly wrapped about with rope. ”

“ It is quite exciting, I assure you, to see the flames being fanned by the bellows, and myriads of sparks flying upwards and outwards on all sides, while the blacksmith hammers the red-hot metal on the anvil and shapes it into horseshoes and other useful things made of iron. ”

“ If in a blacksmith's forge you incautiously placed your hand upon a piece of iron, and it burned your fingers, and if the blacksmith told you that the iron had lain there for half an hour, you would not doubt that it must have been much hotter when the blacksmith drew it from the fire than you found it to be. ”

“ At his anvil, the blacksmith made a great noise, hammering out axes, picks, and stonecutters’ hatchets, and putting on their steel edges; drawing out the bars to the proper length and flattening their ends for crowbars; working shapeless masses of iron into shovels, spades, hoes, and wedges; and for lighter work, making nails of all kinds and sizes for the carpenters. ”

“ Cattle and horses were now to be shod, and they began to feel greatly the need of a blacksmith. If a chain or axe was broken, a horse or yoke of oxen to be shod, there was no smith nearer than eleven miles, and no road except a bridle-path through spotted trees. Previous to this, they had worked their oxen without shoes, and horses were only shod forward. But now they wanted to haul logs and shingles on the ice of the river, and they must be shod. They were in great need of a smith, and yet there was not work sufficient to afford a blacksmith constant employment, and consequently, a living. ”

“ The same will happen to mill-work, or any other machinery, if the necessary precautions are neglected. It is no uncommon practice with a blacksmith to use a plate of iron as an extemporaneous tinder-box; for it may be hammered on an anvil till it becomes red hot, and will fire a match of brimstone. ”

“ Suffice it to say that in the making of a horseshoe all of the blacksmith’s basic tools come into use: forge, anvil, tongs, and vise. Some attention to each of these in turn will help to round out an understanding of the workings of the smithy.
Forge. The blacksmith’s forge, which he sometimes calls his fire, is the most important feature of his shop. ”

“ At last he said:
“Grant that whoever sits on the stool where you sat last night at supper may be unable to get up until I release him.”
St. Peter laughed at this, but Lord Jesus nodded and said:
“This wish, too, will be fulfilled.”
So they parted, Lord Jesus and blessed St. Peter going on their way, and the blacksmith returning home to his forge.
Things came to pass as Lord Jesus had promised they should. Work in plenty flowed into the blacksmith’s shop. The years went by but they made no impression on the blacksmith. He was as young as ever and as vigorous. ”