Blacksmith notes and quotes.................
"Blacksmiths ranked high in the social order because they were trained in special magic. They trained for a year and a day on Scath's Island (possibly Skye), learning metal magic and the martial arts. They could also heal, prophesize and make weapons filled with magical powers. Blacksmith were dedicated to the goddess Sathach or Scotia. Most pagan cultures held blacksmiths in awe because of their ability to create using the four Elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water."
Celtic Magic by D. J. Conway, Lellewellyn Publications, St Paul, 1993.
Our Modern Society divides labor into point of meaningless absurdity and it is difficult to appreciate the role of blacksmiths in by gone days because there is no modern equivalent to him in our society. The blacksmith trade is known as the "grandfather of all industry", because, long before the factory system, there was a blacksmith working at his forge creating tools necessary for life in an agrarian (farming) society.
The term "blacksmith" comes from "smith" which means "to work" and black meant he worked in the black metal, iron. And so a goldsmith works gold, a silversmith works silver, a wagonsmith works on wagons and a blacksmith works iron. None of them, by accurate definition, works on horses. A farrier puts shoes on horses.
The common confusion over farrier and blacksmith comes from the obvious fact both use the forge and anvil. A farrier must know something of the blacksmith trade to heat and shape a shoe, but a blacksmith may not know much if anything, about a farrier's trade.
On the American Frontier, iron was dear. labor was scarce. The western blacksmith was forced by time and circumstance to be all things to all trades. He fixed pots and pans ( a tinsmith or tinker's trade), repaired wagons and wheels (wagonsmith and wainwright's trade). Far from the factory and workshop of the East, these trades all merged into one and folks came to think of a blacksmith as being all of these.
Being a blacksmith was a highly necessary and well regarded person in days gone by. While hard rock gold miners were paid $5 per day to risk their lives and lungs (a goodly wage), the blacksmith charged $1 to sharpen a pick and could do dozens in the day.
There are more Indians in America now than when Columbus landed, more horses in this horseless carriage day than 100 years ago, and there are more blacksmiths now than ever. Most are hobbyists, artists, or plinkers in their spare time. As a practical manner, almost all modern blacksmiths are also weldors, using electric welders to join steel and iron together.
The blacksmith of old also welded, in his forge. With a clean fire, good coal or charcoal, a pinch of borax or sand as a flux, he could forge weld iron together. He could also braze solder and rivet in the forge before the advent of gas welding.
A blacksmith has a steel mill at his bidding. With a hand powered forge, hammer and anvil, he commands steel to be formed under his hammer. He can make a short piece longer, a thin piece thicker, make a hole in plate steel without a drill, and move that hole if need be.
The only restraint on a blacksmith is imagination. Simple tools and hard work will fashion the tools of his trade and he can fix anything made of iron or steel.
There is no trade in to-day's culture equal to the blacksmith of America's frontier. Before the advent of planned obsolescence and a throwaway society, the blacksmith kept things going in a society dependant on metal.
Our lives, said Victor Frankel, are a search for meaning, in the years, seasons, hours and minutes. Nothing is more meaningful than spending an hour in front of the forge producing something meaningful and useful or artistic. Shuffling papers for the Cosmo-Demonic Multi-National Corporation or working to make rich people richer, or moving pixels from one screen to another, is ultimately meaningless. Beating hot iron on the anvil is real, meaningful, rewarding work which will continue to be necessary as long as we live in the Iron Age.
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