What Is A Blacksmith (Definition)
According to dictionary.com, "A blacksmith is a person who forges objects of iron." While this is technically true, it's
not really helpful as it so abstract. More specifically, blacksmiths create horse shoes,utensils, armour,weapons,nails,chain-link,ornamentations, horse shoes, religious totems, railings, gates,
garden tools, household tools, and much much more. They make these tools using traditional -as opposed to modern mass production - forging techniques that have been employed by people for thousands
of years. For most of the last century blacksmiths worked primarily as farriers, small artisinal artists, and as historicaly reenactors.
Lately there has been an increased interest in blacksmithing due to a variety of factors such as:
- Blacksmiths playing a predominant role in video games
- Tv shows such as Forged In Fire
- People looking for unique and exotic hobbies
- A change in the economic structure of artisinal manufacturing*
*Platforms such as amazon and etsy have made this small scale manufacturing much more economically feasabile than it used to be. Before the internet, it was difficult for blacksmiths to find
enough customers to sustain their business. Now with the internet, they are no longer constrained by geography. Blacksmiths can sell there wares to fan around the globe.
A Blacksmith Is An Artisan Who Works With Ferrous (iron) Materials
I touched on this earlier, but the primary working material of a blacksmith is steel and iron based alloys. Historical re-enactors will often play with stock known as wrought iron, this is iron
with a very low carbon content. However outside of historical reenactment, most blacksmiths use mild steel or other alloys. This is because wrought iron is expensive and is actually quite soft
compared to other steel alloys. Which alloy a smith chooses to use depends on the project and the intended use for the piece.
A Blacksmith Is An Artist
I sometimes role my eyes when people get too deep into artsy fartsy froo-froo, but I would definately consider blacksmiths to be (down to earth) artists. It takes a lot of creativity and imagination
to even begin a hobby like blacksmtihing, but it takes even more creativity to take otherwise dull utensils and add ornamental life to them. Some blacksmiths work for personal pleasure, and some work
to sell there art to others. Either way, each smith is creating unique one of a kind items.
A Blacksmith Is An Fixer Upper
Blacksmiths can repair many steel or iron based items that may break during the course of use. This is incredibly handy allows the smith to be more self reliant and less reliant on a long chain
of producers and suppliers that lie outside of the smiths control.
A Blacksmith Is A Welder
While modern welding equipment has great increased the productivity of metal fabrication, there are still some jobs where a traditional blacksmith forge weld is the ideal option for joining two pieces
of metal together. Situations where you are repairing antiques, or you want to join two pieces together without a weld puddle are great canidates for traditional blacksmith forging.
Hopefully you found this article useful. If you think blacksmithing sounds interesting, I highly recommend you check out my article Notes On Beards And Blacksmithing