Blacksmith
Blacksmith
A working blacksmith, from around 1970
Occupation
Type
Profession
Activity sectors
Vocation
Description
Competencies
Physical strength
Related jobs
Tradesman also dentist
A blacksmith is a person who creates ob-
jects from iron or steel by forging the metal;
i.e., by using tools to hammer, bend, cut, . .
Blacksmiths produce things like wrought iron
gates, grills, railings, light fixtures, furniture,
sculpture,
tools, agricultural
implements,
decorative and religious
items, cooking
utensils, horse shoes and weapons.
Blacksmith’s striker
A blacksmith’s striker is an assistant (fre-
quently an apprentice), whose job it is to
swing a large sledge hammer in heavy for-
ging operations, as directed by the black-
smith. In practice, the blacksmith will hold
the hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one
hand, and indicate where the iron is to be
struck by tapping it with a small hammer
held in the other hand: the striker then deliv-
ers a heavy blow with the sledge hammer
where indicated. During the 20th century,
this role has been increasingly obviated and
automated through the use of trip hammers.
The blacksmith’s
materials
A blacksmith at work
When iron ore is smelted into usable metal, a
certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed
with the iron, (charcoal is almost pure car-
bon). The amount of carbon has extreme ef-
fects on the properties of the metal. If the
carbon content is over 2%, the metal is called
cast iron. Cast iron is so called because it has
a relatively low melting point and is easily
cast. It is quite brittle however, and therefore
not used for blacksmithing. If the carbon con-
tent is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting
metal is tool steel, which can be heat treated
as discussed above. When the carbon content
is below 0.25%, the metal is either "wrought
iron" or "mild steel." The terms are never in-
terchangeable. In pre-industrial times, the
material of choice
for blacksmiths was
wrought iron. This iron had a very low carbon
content, and also included up to 5% of glassy
slag. Th