History

Blacksmiths of old used coal forges and were the tool makers of their time A skilled blacksmith could sometimes make as much as a doctor. In medieval times they were Crucial for the swords, sheilds, and armour that they produced. They were viewed as magicians for being able to take soft iron and turn it into a hardened broadsword. Each individual blacksmith had his own "recipie" for hardening steel. Some used Ox blood, others used goat urine, and some just used water with spells chanted over it while the steam rose from the quenching of the red hot metal. For several decadades it was believed that a red headed teenage boy had to urinate on the steel while it was hot in order for it to achieve propper hardness.

During colonial times they were also needed for horse shoes, wagon tires, and simple gun repairs. If a blacksmith headed out west, wherever he settled down people came to him with work and often times people would let him and his family board with them so that he could get his smithy up and running in a timely manner.

Modern blacksmiths are now called upon to do intricate iron work such as gates. The work that they do is often viewed with awe because of the fact that something so intricate, so precice, and so unreal came about by the hands of a man weilding a hammer which is usually viewed as a tool of blunt brutal work, not a tool of precision and accuracy.