In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, blacksmiths  •  had a very narrow range of materials to work with under the  •  hammer. There was wrought iron, wonderfully malleable, and  •  three types of high carbon steel.  •  Wrought iron isn’t available to smiths today. What we have …

Under the spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands  •  -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  •  The blacksmith shop, along with all the other buildings on our  •  property, is heavily shaded by trees in the summer. We did this  •  deliberately when we laid out the buildings, orienting them so …

At gatherings of blacksmiths, a frequent feature is the “What’s It?” display. In this display are tools from old shops, many of which were individually made by smiths to perform specific jobs. Sometimes the tool in the “What’s It?” display is so specialized and idiosyncratic that the smiths at the …

While most of the forge work in the shop is done by hand using a hammer and anvil, we do at times use a power hammer. Ours is used to rough out forgings, the work done in traditional shops by the apprentice, where brute force is more important than precise blows.  •  Diderot Hammer  •  Power …

In our previous post we talked about how we use mechanical joints, brazing and electrical welding to fasten metal parts together for tools and jigs in the shop. In the work we do for Horton, we use only riveted fastening: we head pins for hinges much like we’d head a rivet, and in making Suffolk …

There is a great book by Jeannette Lasansky titled "To Draw, Upset and Weld: The Work of the Pennsylania Rural Blacksmith, 1742-1935" that was published 30 years ago.  We’re taking a bit from the title in the next two posts in order to begin to describe how blacksmiths fasten two pieces of metal …

 •  Blacksmiths cut hot for centuries because it was quick and the tools were more easily accessible. Blacksmiths could make their own. Hacksaw blades were expensive and not easy to obtain and the only shears we’ve seen used in contemporary prints of shops were those used where water power was …

Blacksmiths often need to cut, either hot or cold. Cuts are made  •  in tool making, to prepare stock, shorten rivets, and as part of  •  the forging. Almost all the cuts we make are cold because that  •  is quicker and more precise. Blacksmiths a century or more ago  •  often made most of their …