Good morning and welcome to all the new subscribers! I hope you take the opporunity of looking through all the past tips which have been posted and how you enjoy this new series. Sandi TIP #159 - GRANDPA WAS A BLACKSMITH I'm going to interrupt our other posts for a time and run a limited series on old-time occupations. We might think we know what all these people did when we see them listed on the census as a blacksmith, farmer, etc., but do we really know how their lives effected others, what tools they used, what services they provided? Let's take a look at the village smithy. The blacksmith has long been considered the most important of the early American artisans. We often see him pictured in old westerns hammering away at a pair of horseshoes, but his job was much more involved than that. He was a specialist and he provided many services to the town or country people. The blacksmith first had to have a forge. Stone was normally used for the forge, sometimes brick was available, and the forge had to have a chimney and hood. The base was a masonry block, flat, around 2 1/12 feet tall. There was a fire hole on top slightly in front of its center. A grate, which was set in the hold, held charcoal, below it was the ash pit. Another hole was found on the back, below the grate level. A "tue iron" was cemented into this; a tapered nozzle through which the hot air blew the fire to its intense temperatures. The anvil was located about 4 feet in front of the forge, reachable by long tongs. It was made of forged iron and usually rested on the bottom of a log set in the earthen floor. The shape of the blacksmith's anvil has barely changed over the thousands of years of its existence; it has a wide base, a rectangular core, a tapered beak over which the iron was bent, and a square hole in the core. The forge and anvil provided all the tools that were necessary for the blacksmith - from these two, he made all of his other equipment. He not only made horseshoes, but hoes, plowshares, cowbells, awls, scrapers, plane blades. Another term that has almost faded from the American vocabulary was the "farrier". The blacksmith often filled this roll too, for the farrier shoed horses and oxen and was often the closest thing to a veterinarian that most small towns had. In times of need, the local blacksmith could be called on to pull an aching, rotten tooth! Horse shoe making was an art in itself. He had to know exactly the size and shape of the horse hoof from which he shaped the horseshoe to make it fit perfectly. An ill-shod horse was of no use to anyone. Shaping took place at the forge and when up to specifications, the horseshoe was pushed soundly against the sole of the hoof, burning the hoof to make total contact. It is said that there is a lot of smoke, but no pain to the animal due to the horny surface of the hoof. Pre-punched holes in the shoe allowed for nails to be nailed into the shoe. Oxen have a different style hoof - they are "cloven footed", thus the blacksmith had to make their shoes in two pieces. And, it was more difficult shoeing an oxen, because, as the farmers out there know, a horse can stand rather peacefully on three legs - an oxen can not. Thus a sling had to be used to hold the ox up. "Citified" blacksmiths also made other tools including nails. After the use of the wooden plug had diminished, people wanted real metal nails. These had to be pointed on one end, cut and a head had to be created. And it was preferable that the nails be all the same length! It is said that many city blacksmiths trained young men apprenticed to them by teaching them to make nails. They progressed from there to gridirons, trivets, pot hooks, trammels, dippers, strainers, toasters, strap hinges, fire tongs, andirons, slide bolts, interior and exterior door hinges and cupboard hinges. As the farmer's barns became more ornamental as well as useful, the smithy was often called on to create elaborate weather vanes. Soon town officials wanted balcony railings on their city halls, sign brackets for businesses, chandeliers to hold candles in the town "ordinary" or tavern. The blacksmith has always held the reputations of being a hard working man, sturdy, dependable and honest. So when you find your ancestor listed as a blacksmith, be proud of the work he did. He was the backbone of the community and the farm. © Copyright 29 June 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, All rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com. Sandi Gorin - 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141-3409 (502)651-9114 or sgorin@glasgow-ky.com A Proud Kentucky Colonel PUBLISHING: http://members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html KYRESEARCH: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios BARREN CO OBITUARIES: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/BarrenObits PRAYER&PRAISE: http://www.listbot.com/subscribe/prayerandpraise