Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village
smithy stands…. Did you have to memorize that in school? Do they even memorize
poetry now days? My impression of a blacksmith formed from that poem and the
print my parents had hanging in their living room. The print of the painting by Paul Detlefson came first, so when I had to learn the poem, I visualized red barn as being the village smithy. The painting is actually titled "Horse and Buggy Days" but I didn't know that then.
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| I have no idea if the large tree is a chestnut but to me it was. |
I’ve seen a fair number of historic western blacksmith
shops. My husband lets me drag him through living history museums wherever we
find them. Actually, he’s very interested in history but I don’t think he needs
as much first-hand frontier information as I require for research.
For the purpose of this article, let me define that
a blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects from wrought iron or steel. He
forges the metal by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut. Blacksmiths produce
objects such as gates, grilles, railings, furniture, tools, agricultural
implements, nails, chains, and weapons. In many Old West towns, the blacksmith
was also a gunsmith.
The term “blacksmith” comes from the black
firescale, a layer of oxides that forms on the metal surface during heating. Some
sources state the word “smith” may come from the old English word “Smythe”,
meaning to strike. Other sources say the word may have originated from the
Proto-German “smithaz” meaning “skilled worker”.
Prior to the industrial
revolution, a "village smithy" was a staple of every town.
Factories and mass-production reduced the demand for blacksmith-made tools and
hardware.
The original fuel for forge fires was charcoal. Coal did
not begin to replace charcoal until the forests of first Britain (during the 17th
century), and then the eastern United States of America (during the 19th
century) were largely depleted. Coal can be an inferior fuel
for blacksmithing, because much of the world's coal is contaminated with sulfur.
Sulfur contamination of iron and steel make them "red short", so that
at red heat they become "crumbly" instead of "plastic".
Coal sold and purchased for blacksmithing should be largely free of sulfur.
I’ve looked online for a photo that matches the image in my head
for the blacksmith/gun repair shop in my latest release, A BRIDE FOR GIDEON,
but I can’t find one. Sadly, I don’t draw well enough to illustrate what the
concept in my mind. Here is the closest
I could find.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the US
government included in their treaties with many Native tribes, that
the US would employ blacksmiths and strikers at Army forts, with the
expressed purpose of providing Native Americans with iron tools and repair
services. I have to admit this fact came as a surprise. By the way, a blacksmith's striker
is an assistant (frequently an apprentice), whose job it is to swing a large
sledgehammer in heavy forging operations, as directed by the blacksmith.
In practice, the blacksmith holds the hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one
hand, and indicates where to strike the iron by tapping it with a small hammer
in the other hand. The striker then delivers a heavy blow to the indicated spot
with a sledgehammer. Let's hope he didn't miss.
During the early to mid-nineteenth century, European armies as
well as both the U. S. Federal and Confederate armies employed blacksmiths
to shoe horses and repair equipment such as wagons, horse tack, and artillery
equipment. These smiths primarily worked at a traveling forge that
comprised wagons specifically designed and constructed as blacksmith shops on
wheels to carry the essential equipment necessary for their work.
In frontier/Old West towns, a blacksmith was an important
person. Movement by horse or wagon depended on him being able to shoe horses
and repair wagons. Building depended on him. He also made nails, hinges, locks, gates, and other metal
objects needed for everyday life.
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| That's my ancestor standing at the far right. Maybe he had to repair that wagon on the left. |
One of my ancestors on my father’s side, pictured above, was a farmer/rancher who
worked as a blacksmith at his home near Duke, Oklahoma. Looks more as if they're having a party with so many people, doesn't it? To his wife’s
annoyance, he didn’t charge his neighbors and spent a lot of time working for
free. Supposedly, she (pictured below) was very pleased when they moved into town.
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| His wife, who is working with the cows. |
Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel
until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a
hammer, an anvil and a chisel. Heating generally took place in
a forge fueled by coal or charcoal.
Color is important for indicating the temperature and
workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red,
then orange, yellow, and finally white. The ideal heat for most forging is the
bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat. Because
they must be able to see the glowing color of the metal, some blacksmiths work
in dim, low-light conditions, but most work in well-lit conditions. The key is
to have consistent lighting, but not too bright. Direct sunlight obscures the
colors.
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| Modern blacksmith at work |
The techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into
forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat-treating, and
finishing. Forging is the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering the
iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations (except when trimming
waste) by smiths usually re-arrange metal around the hole, rather than drilling
it out.
The five basic forging processes are often combined to produce
and refine the shapes necessary for finished products. For example, to fashion
a cross-peen hammer head, a smith would start with a bar roughly the diameter
of the hammer face. The handle hole would be punched and drifted (widened by
inserting or passing a larger tool through it), the head would be cut (punched,
but with a wedge), the peen would be drawn to a wedge, and the face would be
dressed by upsetting.
Welding is the joining of the same or similar kind of
metal. This is not the acetylene torch of today. In forge welding, the pieces
to join are heated to what is generally referred to as welding heat.
For mild steel most smiths judge this temperature by color—the metal glows an
intense yellow or white. At this temperature the steel is near molten.
Depending on the intended use of a piece, a blacksmith may
finish it in a number of ways: a simple jig (a tool) that the smith might only
use a few times in the shop may get the minimum of finishing—a rap on the anvil
to break off scale and a brushing with a wire brush. Files bring a piece to
final shape, removing burrs and sharp edges, and smoothing the surface. Heat
treatment and case-hardening achieve the desired hardness. The wire brush
can further smooth, brighten, and polish surfaces. Grinding stones, abrasive
paper, and emery wheels can further shape, smooth, and polish the surface.
A range of treatments and finishes can inhibit oxidation and
enhance or change the appearance of the piece. An experienced smith selects the
finish based on the metal and on the intended use of the item. Finishes include
(among others) paint, varnish, bluing, browning, oil, and wax.
As demand for their products declined, many more blacksmiths
augmented their incomes by taking in work shoeing horses. A
shoer-of-horses was historically known as a farrier in English.
With
the introduction of automobiles, the number of blacksmiths continued to
decrease. Many former blacksmiths became the initial generation of
automobile mechanics. That’s what happened in my ancestry. The son of the
blacksmith pictured near Duke, Oklahoma above became a mechanic in Tulare, California.
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| Auto Mechanics - What happened to a lot of blacksmiths. |
The low point of blacksmithing in the United States was reached
during the 1960s, when most of the former blacksmiths had left the trade, and
few if any new people were entering the trade. By this time, most of the
working blacksmiths were those performing farrier work, so the
term blacksmith was effectively co-opted by the farrier trade.
Caroline Clemmons writes historical and contemporary western
romance. Her latest, A BRIDE FOR GIDEON, is #16 of the popular, multi-author
Proxy Bride Series, is a historical romance. The gorgeous cover was designed by Virginia McKevitt.
Keira desperately wants to belong
somewhere
Gideon is haunted by a secret too
horrible to share
Fate conspires against them…
Keira
Cameron came to Boston from Scotland after the death of her parents. She wanted
a job, a husband, and eventually a family. She feels rejected because at almost
six feet she’s too tall, Her Scottish burr makes her appear too foreign. She is
too pretty for any wife to want Keira working near the woman’s husband. Were
her expectations unreasonable? Her cousin convinces her to enter a proxy
marriage to his friend, Gideon Ross, who lives in Montana Territory. Out of
options, she agrees and hopes her goals will be realized.
Gideon Ross is a large man at five
inches over six feet. His business is a smithy and gun repair shop. The war
left him with a terrible scar on his face. He wears a beard to try to conceal
the scar but still hears people whisper he’s a monster and a giant. Do they
think he has no feelings? He’s haunted by the war and has terrible nightmares. Reluctantly,
he agrees to wed Keira by proxy.
Outside forces work against the couple. Keira
and Gideon must find the key to the attack on their lives. Can they defeat the
enemy before they’re too late?
A BRIDE FOR GIDEON is free in KU and available in e-book and
print at the Universal Amazon link http://mybook.to/Keira
Reviews include:
"I enjoyed reading this
captivating story that is fantastically written with charismatic characters.
Their story has a wonderful HEA."
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