Dear Listmates: My grandfather was a blacksmith in the teens through the 1930's. I am researching the trade to get a better sense of what his work life was like. As a freelance journalist, I'm working on a story about my exploration, describing my visits to contemporary blacksmith shops and museums. Why are you interested in blacksmithing? How are researching the subject? Have you gone to smithing demonstrations, or perhaps learned the craft yourself? I would appreciate your response. Regards, Linda Kush Boston MA

Dear Linda I have read a lot of books on blacksmithing and interviewed the family members that remember visiting my grandfathers shop. My grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather were all blacksmiths going back to the early 1800's. My G G grandfather was the community blacksmith for Teplitz, Bessarabia, South Russia. He was hired in 1833. I am in the process of writing a book about my family. I am on my way to work right now but tonight will try to get you the sources I have found and tell you a little about my grandfathers shops. He came to America in October 1901. He and his older brother opened a blacksmith shop in Goodrich, North Dakota in 1903. I have a picture of a surry they built. My grandfather then opened his own shop when Turtle Lake was founded. I have a picture of it with him standing in front with a large Horse. That shop burned down in 1916. He also had shops in Rapelji, Montana, and Laurel, Montana. His brother moved to Canada. It is funny but several of their descendents went into trades that are related to the blacksmith of old. They became or own Automobile dealerships, auto repair shops, are steamfitters, carpenters, fuel truck owners and drivers, and railroad workmen. To fully understand blacksmithing you have to go back to when the blacksmith shop was the center of a community and where the action was. They helped produce everthing a community needed for many years relating to wood or metal. Because I love the Ren fairs I have seen several modern smiths applying their trade today. They produce knives, swords and decorative items. The blacksmith of old, produced the necessities of live. It was not uncommon for a smith of old to produce over 100,000 nails in his life alone. To much to type right now. Will look forward to talking with you when I get back home. I work from 7am to 4 pm. Ila Johnson Fort Worth, Texas [email protected] wrote: Dear Listmates: My grandfather was a blacksmith in the teens through the 1930's. I am researching the trade to get a better sense of what his work life was like. As a freelance journalist, I'm working on a story about my exploration, describing my visits to contemporary blacksmith shops and museums. Why are you interested in blacksmithing? How are researching the subject? Have you gone to smithing demonstrations, or perhaps learned the craft yourself? I would appreciate your response. Regards, Linda Kush Boston MA ==== BLACKSMITHING Mailing List ==== List Mom for the BLACKSMITHING mailing list: Diana Boothe [email protected] ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237

If your library doesn't have the following books, and few will, I ordered them through inter-library loan. All have helped me understand the blacksmithing field. There are also some books on Coal and Iron available. "The Art of Blacksmithing," Alex W. Bealer (Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1995. "The Blacksmith," (London: Rural Industries Bureau, 1959) "The Blacksmith and the Welder," (TM10-440) Untied States Army (Washington "Dept of War" 1941) "Blacksmithing," R.W. Selvidge and J.M. alton (Peoria, Illinois: Manuel Arts Press, 1925) Encyclopedia Britannica "Forging" and Iron and Steel" (1910) "Encyclopedia of Trades and Industries," Dennis Diderot, Edited by Charles Coulston Gillespie (Paris: Briasson, David, Le Breton et Durand, 1767; New York; Dover Press, 1959) "The Forge," Thomas Sigismund Stribling (Garden City, New York: Sun Dial Press, 1938) "Forge Practice," John Lord Bacon (Brooklyn, New York; Braunworth and Company, 1919) "Forging and Smithing," Lynn C. Jones (New York and London: the Century company, 1924) "Iron Making and Iron Working in Ancient Russia," U.S. Dept of Commerce (Alexandria, Virginaia 22151) "The Making of Tools," Alexander g. Weygers (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1973) "Traditional County Craftsmen," J. Gersint Jenkins (New York and Washington: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966) "Wrought Iron," James Aston and Edward B. Story (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; A.M. Byers Company, 1950) This is some of what I have written for my book. There is a chapter on blacksmithing. Blacksmithing is an ancient and honorable occupation. Of the four elemental substances of the world, Fire, Air, Earth and Fire, only the blacksmith works with all four. His Forge holds the fire, his Bellows controls the air, his Iron is from the earth and he uses Water to cool and temper his metal. Up to the 20th century very little could be built in a community without the help of the blacksmith. It was his job to make either according to his own design or that of this patrons the items needed in his community. He made the hammers, axes, plane bits, knives, sickles, scythes, files, chisels and other necessities needed by the frarmers and craftsmen. He produced the spikes, nails, hinges, hardwae, door latches, plus other items and even decorative ironwork for the building trade. For the kitchen he produced kettles and boilers. To make womens work easier he made pokers, shovels, tongs, forks, spoons, ladles, strainers as well as the trivets and knives in all sizes and shapes. Most think of brawn, when you say blacksmith, but they also had to have imagination and the power to visualize what they were producing. About 1860, Iron changed. It was now mild steel produced by steel mills, shipped by rail. It didn't work like wrought iron. It is almost impossible to burn iron in a forge, it oxidizes to some extent but it melts before it burns. It will rust, but very slowly. The new steel didn't work like the iron of old. It burned up if it got too hot, and was harder to weld. Welding temperature is just before the burning stage. A smith had to be quick to remove his iron from the fire before it was consumed. Mild steel rusts and corrodes easier. By 1900, mild steel was basically all that was available. Through the ages there was specialization. Farriers worked with the animals, not only shoeing but also treating sick animals. Cutlers, made only knives, and scissors, requiring especially developed skills in welding steel and iron together and in tempering steel. There were also specialists in forging and refinishing small items such as bridle bits and harness buckles. Some built only wagons or carriages. Still most blacksmiths did a little of everything. There were instructional books to learn blacksmithing but they were not generally used. You became a smith only after years as an apprentice. If your father was a blacksmith, a son as soon as he was old enough to walk, played and watched as his father worked in his shop. Being an apprentice was not an easy job. He was really no more than another peice of pre-automation equipment used to build and blow the fire, pull of old shoes from fractious horses, and to strike hot iron with a heavy sledge when and where the blacksmith told him to strike. Often his instruciton was the negative kind, a cuff when he did something wrong instead of praise and instruction when doing his work correctly. After several years of apprenticeship, he became a jouneyman, and generally then went and worked for several different smiths to gain experience in his trade and to observe the different techniques of a number of master smiths. The blacksmith shop was always a fasinating place to visit. It was part of almost every community providing a sence of stability. Long before you got to the shop you could see the black smoke rising out of the chimney and hear the Smithy's hammer making a bell-like ring as it struck his anvil. As you got to the door and your eyes adjusted to the dark interior, you could watch the activity inside. There was a fascinating rhythm as the Smithy bounced his enormous hammer on the anvil. You would then hear the ching, ching, ching of his striking the glowing red hot iron he held by a pair of long-handled pliers. Cascades of sparks flew with each ringing blow as it slowly changed color. When shoeing a horse there was a wonderland of marvelous odors made up of the blend of horse-flesh, leather, burning coke, and hot metal. The blacksmith always approached the horse from the head. He had a way of calming the most excitable animals by talking to them and smoothing them along their necks as he walked back to look at their feet. First he took the old shoes off by holding the hooves between this knees as he stood with his back to the head of the horse. With a mighty wrench of a pair of pincers he would remove the old shoe. Then he would cut the growth away around the center of the hoof and smooth the whole area with a large rasp. Taking a long bar of iron, he measured it by eye across the hoof to be shod. Then he thrushed the bar deep into a bed of coke and using the bellows, causing sparks to rise under the hood of the forge, he brought the coke to a white hot glow. When the iron was hot enough, he would lay the glowing end of the metal across the anvil and, grabbing his hammer, he would begin the ringing rhythm of beating the iron into shape. Almost as if by magic, the horse-shoe would take shape under the shower of sparks. Then he would cut the new shoe off the bar with one well aimed blow of a hammer with an axe-like edge. After more shapping he fitted the reheated shoe to the hoof of the horse, so as to burn the fit on the hoof. Then the shoe was chucked into a tub of water to cool. The shop would fill with the acid smell of burned hoof and hot metal. Like other crastmen and artists, the blacksmith was no better than his tools. Only unlike others, he was unique in being able to produce his own. As his trade changed through the years, so did his tools. A well equiped shop had a fascinating variety of tools, some in mysterious shapes and of ingenious construction. Only the smith could explain how he made them or used them. As the farmer got steam driven equipment, in order to keep his equipment running, many of a blacksmith made tools to fix what broke. Automobiles needed axles, and many parts made to keep them on the road. Not only did a smith work metal but also wood. He had to understand paint, animals and how equipment worked. Prior to the 1900's when building wagons or carriages he usually worked with a wheelwright. But after the 1900's due to mass production, a smith could build a wagon of carriage by himself. During his lifetime a smith would make ten thousand or more of given items, such as horsehoes, nails or chisels. It is conceivable that he may of struck a million hammerblows, yet despite this, each hammerblow was different; each had a different effect on the hot iron being worked; each was followed by a blow different in sequence from the blows used on a previous item. As with marble and clay, the working of iron comes from the eye and the intelect rather than just the strength to swing a hammer. The force used to shape iron comes from the soul, its an art, not learned in books. It is essentially a molding process that requires controlled force and delicate technique. Iron! must be heated, which requires knowlege and experience. You can observe the processes as the it changes colors, but it is knowing when the right temperature has been reached before it burns that only comes with years of experience. If the metal isn't hot enough the hammer makes it brittle, but when it is hot enough, it can be transformed into almost any desired shape. There is a language used by smiths. There is "fullerin," "punching," "cutting," "beveling," "scarfing," and "lap welding." To "draw out" meant to make a thick rod or bar thinner, to "upset" to make a bar or rod thicker. They "tongue welded," bradded," "banded," "collared," "packed," "dressed," and "shouldered." Heating iron takes a surprising short time in a good coke fire. You need a good strong, steady blast of air. It oxidizes the iron, so you must know what you are doing. They used a high quality of "shop," or "metallurgical coal." It had a "coking button" of 7 to 9. Ash content had to be extremely low and not flame once it turned to coke. Up to the 1900's most forges were made of brick or stone. They were usually 30 inches high and from 24 to 40 inches square. In order to weld, the forge had to have a hearth as deep as it was wide. The deeper fire meant more oxygen from the bellows was consumed leaving less oxygen to oxidize the iron being welded. Most had hoods over top connected to a chimney to carry off the smoke and fine ash. Still, because of the smoke, many blacksmiths ended up dying from consumption. On the front and sides of the forge there were racks for tongs and tong rings to hold the handles of the long handled pliers used for gripping a piece of iron placed in the fire. Almost every forge had a space or ledge not taken up by the fire where he could put pieces of iron or steel the smith expected to use or where he layed his pliers so they were handy for his use when his iron reached the proper heat. No forge was complete without its bellows. At first it was a marvel of ingenuity and efficiency, a combination of wood, leather, valves, pipes and levers, and counterbalances. Later the smiths used "squirrel cage" blowers. Many an hour was passed by the children and grandchildren of a blacksmith, turning the handle on the blower. In "The Art of Blacksmithing," by Alex W. Bealer, he says about the old bellows the following: "Blowing the fire causes it to roar and against this can be heard the point and of a creaking lever, the thump of lower and upper boards as they came in contact with the immobile middle board, and the muted tapping of felt-padded valves, inside the chambers. Against this the fire brightens, the sparks from the coal fly, dancing up the chimney, while the iron gradually turns a brighter red, then white until welding heat was reached, and a whole crop of tiny white incandescent sparks, leaped from the semi-molten iron to perform an airy ballet in the heated air above the fire." Many smiths used the older bellows until the smith's traditional funcitons were taken over by machines. Every blacksmith shop had a tub of water, to cool the hot iron so it could be handled or tempered. In later years it was usually half a wine or whiskey barrel, or a metal tub. Its rim was an handy place to store horseshoes. Because my family built wagons and carriages and were building springs and sharpening tools, they needted tempering baths and special slack tubs. Brine and oil cool steel a little more slowly than plain water providing a more delicate temper. Brine was used for larger peices such as axles and oil for small knives and springs. After tempering in brine the iron was washed off in clear water. The ringing anvil used by a blacksmith came in a large range of sizes from 25 lbs up to 800 lbs for large shops. It was usually ordered and was a part of every blacksmith shop since the beginning of the craft. There are several basic designs but the differences are rather minor. Here in America, the English pattern was used. A 100 lb English pattern was about 22 inches long from the tip of the horn to the heel. Its frame is about 2 1/2 inches in wide and about 15 inches long, pounched with the hardie and pritchel holes. My family in Russia used the Lieges design that is similar to what was produced in Germany. Being of iron and steel, and weighing from 100 to 300 pounds, the anvil is almost indestructible. Still they had to be used carefully and maintained regularly. blows with too heavy of a sled hammer could break off either the horn or heel and the constant pounding could make it swaybacked in the middle. Some smiths filed and rounded the corners in certain area! s for special uses. They varied in cost and quality. The anvil was usually mounted on a huge section of log but where wood was scare the smith would build a stand from four heavy planks, joined into a narrow, truncated pyramid so that only the feet of the anvil rested on the four corners of the stand. The height depended upon the type of work the smith did. The face of the anvil was usually placed so that the side of the blacksmith's knuckles just reached it as his hand hung down by his side. This height allowed him to use the power of gravity and the full wight of his hammer on the work he was doing without straining or bending his back. Even when holding the work by his pliers, it allowed him to work with out strain. Generally the anvil had its horn placed on the left and the heel to the right of the blacksmith. His other tools, as I mentioned before, were made by the smith himself. These included his pokers, shovels and rakes for the forge. He had tools for shapping, cutting and bending the hot iron. The most essential was the "hardie" itself, or "cutter," which allowed the smith to cut off or split bastock without a helper. There were "swages" of infinite sizes and varitey, including a set of round ones for making square rods into round ones in dimension from 1/8 inch to 1 1/2 inches. They had oval swages, square swages, diamond swages, octagonal and hexagonal swages depending on the type of work the smith did. Many times he made these himself, to fit the jobs he was doing. There were special racks and stands used to hold the work when both his hands were needed for welding before the heat was lost. Another piece of equipment, in my grandfather's shop was the "mandrel." It was a cone of cast iron some 2 to 4 feet high, used to shape circular objects such as the hub bands for wagon wheels. There were hammers of every shape and weight. Some were hard, some soft, some made of iron and steel. The smith was able to controll the mass through the use of hammers of different weights. They could controll their acceleration through the applied strenth of their arm to summon the force needed for whatever job they were doing. They were using the physicist formual "force equals mass multiplied by acceration ,"although they didn't know it. In the hands of a skilled smith the hammer became a precision instrument controlled by coordination of eye and muscles. handels were made to fit the smith's hands and the peculiarities of his arm action. Some handles were long, some short. The pliers or tongs, as they were called by many, were of forged iron, with different shaped jaws depending on the job being done. There were special ones for making hammers, axles, and other tools. When the smith struck his red-hot piece of iron it had to be gripped securley, so it couldn't fly off the anvil and land where it shouldn't or even burn the smith's hand or arm. The simplest tools to be found in a shop was the "chisels," and "punches." There was a large number of these used for punching holes of various sizes and for cutting, splitting and carving iron. Punches were generally used on hot iron. They were handled and unhandled and came in diverse shapes. Often the work of a particular smith could be identified by the special designes of punches he used on his jobs. The chisels, also called "sets," came with short shanks and obtruse edges to cut cold iron and with handles for cutting hot iron. If a shop did general work, they also had swages. They were set tools, each with a handle. As nails became mass produced nailheaders and boltheaders disappeared from the shops. My grandfather, because he build wagons and carriages, continued to use a header designed to fit into a vise, so as to take care of longer bolts than the height of the anvil would allow. Threads had to be cut on bolt ends and nuts, and threads had to be cut in the holes of plates to receive bolds, all done with a varitey of taps and dies. Later a screwcutting lathe was invented, but my grandfather continued to use his hand tools. He always had a workbench, made of heavy planks that held steady under the pounding and heavy weight placed on it. It was in one corner close to the forge with a vise on it. There was also "reamers," "pliers," "screwdrivers," "clippers," "hacksaw's," "bench shears," and a lot of "files" on it. Because he build wagons, he also had wheelwrights tools, "woodplanes," "spokeshaves," "felloe saws," "rasps," "woodchisels," and "augers," for making and fitting the parts of wheels and bodies. There were "tiredogs," and "spokedogs," for prising tires and spokes into place, as well as "boxing engines," "calipers," and "samsons." An important tool was the "traveler," a 6 inch iron wheel with a handle. It was run carefully around the perimeter of a wagon wheel and the revolutions counted. This measurement was then transferred to the tire iron so that tire could be cut accurately before welding. After 1870 many of the wheel and wagon parts were made in factories so a blacksmith co! uld build wagons and carriages by himself. Hubs and sleeves were cast in iron by foundries, bent felloes, two to a wheel, relaced the sawn felloes of six or seven on a wheel of old. There were mechanical helps such as the "hub borers" to provide accurate holes, bored and reamed in one operation; "tire benders" adjustable to any size tire, and "tire" and "hub-band shrinkers," that saved labor. Still the welded iron tires for the wheels, required the percise skill of a master blacksmith. He had to decide how much "dish" the wheel needed, take into consideration the spaces between the felloes, plus know how much the wood would contract when the hot tire was applied. He had to take into consideration the weather so when the wheel got wet the wood wouldn't pull the tire apart. When redoing wheels, they had to be tired differently than the new ones for this reason. They were doing algebra nd geometry, even though they didn't know it. Still, each smith was a different person with different muscular and mental characteristics; each had different equipment, different training; each generation after generation, develped his own techniques. There are no hard and fast rules in smithing, making individual techniques possible. Some fundamental techniques were employed by them all, but the application and order of the methods, the tools used varies from smith to smith. All had the pleasure of hammering red-hot iron, watching the color change as it cooled. There was the action of hot ozide scale which violently detaches itself from the iron as the hammerblows fall, shooting off in all directions as the anvil rings with the work. The smith had a feeling of accomplishemnt and power as he watched the material change its shape under each blow and the control he had over the preconceived form he was shaping. He had the satisfaction and pleasure of working with his hand tools, the regular rhythm of filing, sawing ! or twisting of bolts and screws as well as the feeling of a job well done. Up until World War I, the blacksmith was an essential and familiar part of every community. After that, because of the automobile, and the continuing developments of mass-production techniques, his trade started to disappear. By the time my grandfather closed his shop he was mainly a mechanic, repairing equipment for the farmers they had bought elsewhere. There are few general blacksmiths to be found today. There are still farriers, some decorative-wrought ironworkers, and some who make knives but the general blacksmith has disappeared. Now it is the artist who is the blacksmith. The following men where blacksmiths in my family. My Great Great Grandfather Georg Konrad Fink, my Great Grandfather Johann Jakob Fiechtner/Fichtner, his sons, Wilhlem, Jacob, Heinrich, and Konrad. The last three came to America from Russia, Jacob in 1899, Heinrich in 1901 and Konrad in 1900. Their sons, August, Emanuel, Friedrich, and Emil also were blacksmiths. After blacksmithing stopped being profitable, our men started doing auto repair, several owned and some still own car dealerships, they sold farm equipment, became fuel truck drivers, worked for the railroad doing repairs, became carpenters, or went into other trades where they could use their hands. My father became a steamfitter and when I took geometry he could tell me whether my answer was right or not, but because he didn't follow the rules, I couldn't use his way of getting those answers. He had only completed the 6th grade. He would have been a blacksmith, I am sure, if the trade had still existed. I don't know if this will help you any. I never got to visit my grandfathers blacksmith shops but I do have pictures of them. I also have a picture of a surry he built with his brother Jacob about 1905. I have interviewed several of my family members who did visit the shops. His brother Konrad, even took out a patent for a piece of equipment he produced in his shop to help keep a plow straight longer. They all farmed but were trained and continued to do blacksmithing into the 40's on their farms and for neighbors. If you need any more information from me, just let me know. You may already have read the books listed above and know what I have written but I hope it will be of help to you. Ila Johnson Fort Worth, Texas [email protected] wrote: Dear Listmates: My grandfather was a blacksmith in the teens through the 1930's. I am researching the trade to get a better sense of what his work life was like. As a freelance journalist, I'm working on a story about my exploration, describing my visits to contemporary blacksmith shops and museums. Why are you interested in blacksmithing? How are researching the subject? Have you gone to smithing demonstrations, or perhaps learned the craft yourself? I would appreciate your response. Regards, Linda Kush Boston MA ==== BLACKSMITHING Mailing List ==== List Mom for the BLACKSMITHING mailing list: Diana Boothe [email protected] ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237

Hi Linda, You wrote:- >My grandfather was a blacksmith in the teens through the 1930's. I am >researching the trade to get a better sense of what his work life was like. As a >freelance journalist, I'm working on a story about my exploration, describing my >visits to contemporary blacksmith shops and museums. > >Why are you interested in blacksmithing? How are researching the subject? >Have you gone to smithing demonstrations, or perhaps learned the craft yourself? > >I would appreciate your response. > >Regards, >Linda Kush >Boston MA Both my Grandfather and GGrandfather were master blacksmiths and had their own smiddy (Scottish variety of smithy) in Edinburgh, Scotland (Tom and James Moyes). I spent a period of my early life living with my Grandparents - my father had been called up to fight in WW2. The smiddy was near the house and I spent many hours watching my Grandfather at work and taking a great interest in what he was doing. Please write to me directly if you would like me to write a bit about my memories (early 1940s - late 1950s). -- Gordon S McKean Dumfries, Scotland Mailto:[email protected]