A few days ago i recived an email from a student at la “Transilvania” Universitaty Brasov,  and i was asked to prezent some info about how the iron is forged and what tools are used, in order for the student to write a project about this topic. What i can say is that a blacksmith has to be able to forge any element, iron picket under a hammer… and i know about some blacksmiths that don’t even use the file to finish the iron because that is removing material not moving it. Any tool that is removing material and is creating splinters is normally not involved into blacksmithing work and is not ”allowed”. That was the way the blacksmith craft was learned long time ago and this is how the old wrought iron gates and railings where created. This is the reason why they have such a grate value this days, because not many blacksmithing shops are working in the old way, with the hand hammer and anvil. Of course this days because of the costs the blacksmiths are ,,cheating” and they don’t necessary forge the iron. They have presses and power tools and most of the time the fastest method is used. There are only a hand full of clients that are really interested how the forged iron element was made, mass produce in china under special tools or hand formed, forged using an anvil and the hammer. Normally a client want’s his iron gate or iron railing finished as soon as possible and as cheap as possible, and that is pushing the blacksmith out of work and he is slowly transforming  in a welder that is buying cheap chinese elements and electricaly welds them together. If we are strictly interested into the blacksmithing work than we have limited tools : anvil, hammer, wire brush, tongues, a few chisels, and a  forge. Instead if we are interested into mass production than we have presses, rollers, and many other types of tools.The main disadvantage when using this tools to create the so called forged iron elements is that the finished product loses it’s originality. The same element is identticaly repeated hundreds of times both on my iron fence and my neighbour iron fence and if u look closely u will see the next neighbour has the same too, but when a blacksmith is forging every picket in the traditional method and only by hand than every element is unique .This will make my fence have character and every element in it will be different than the other.The differences will probably go unseen by an untrained eye but those small dettailes are making the job unique, and my fence won’t be the same as my neighbour’ s fence. I think that when u what to speak about the blacksmit you need to speak how he used to do his job hundred’s of years not how he is doing it in the past 20 years or so.  A press is just a press but a blacksmith is/was everything.

This is the reason why i chose to present this 3 movies so that everybody can see how a blacksmith is supouse to bend iron , how to make a leaf, how to weld it without having to grind afterward. I hope that i was able to help and i hope that you will present the blacksmith not the press in your writings. For me it;s obvious. A work made by a carver’s hand is perfect while the work made on a numerical controled mill… well that’s just to perfect.

I really love this black and white movies… Take a look at this blacksmit’s forging this huge chunk of iron under this earth shaking steam power hammer 100 years ago.  I wonder how much the iron weights, i think a few hundred kilos or maybe a ton, and this guys are moving it just using some chains and the muscles. I know this day’s there is an iron manipulator, a feeder that’s moving the iron under the power hammer taking the heavy loads from the hands of the blacksmits and mimimizingi the risks of enjury.  The blacksmiths in this movie are cutting the material using a special power hammer chiesel, you can see two of them are handeling the big chisels from the sides of the steam power hammer

As you already may know our blacksmithing shop had the privilege to host a practical blacksmithing demonstration called:

How to protect the iron elements of a historical building.

If you are interested to see what had been spoken in the theoretical blacksmithing demo and what had been demonstrated in the practical part of the demo you can watch the short movies that we filmed. I am going to point out for you what had been spoken at the theoretical blacksmithing demo.

- identification of the forged iron elements and the damage that can occur in time

- presenting the methods of wrought iron protection against rust, methods of restoration and methods of taking care of the wrought iron elements.

- making of a list, project that is necessary for the blacksmith to have when starting a restoration job.

- cost calculation using the list, project that was done.

Lecture clip: How to protect the iron elements of a historical building

Theoretical:

Inside WALLY Junior’s shop, Stephan Christ, the blacksmith presented some basic methods of  traditional forging. First thing that he had showed was how to make a spike and how to make a ring, offering the students the chance to forge with theyer own hands the same elements. As you can see in the short clips the iron, the metal can be forged even by a young beautiful woman if she has enof will and passion to hand forge iron using nothing else than a hand hammer and an anvil.

Practical : The will and the passion of a beautifful woman

Practical : Made out of with the hands of an actor

Beautiful black and white comedy inspired by the blacksmit’s life,Once apon a time a important figure in the city… now just a common man doing his best to make a living. Just look at the movie and smile ! I did so Buster Keaton is just grate !

Trailer - with sound-

Buster Keaton , The blacksmith - part 1-

Buster Keaton , The blacksmith - part 2-

Buster Keaton , The blacksmith - part 3-

This short film is a Blacksmithing demonstration in Peru. The blacksmith is presenting the process of forging a decorative object (famous NAZCA LINES) using nothing but traditional methods of forging and without the help of modern power tools. It whoud be nice to have this sort of demonstrations over here in Romania to… althow there is no real interes about this craft at least I whoud love to participate at such a demonstration and anything regarding the process of forging iron .

This is another black and white movie showing how forging work was done in 1904. They where welding the iron in this manner not only because in that period welding equipment was not standard in the shops but also because this process is resulting with a very good bond between the materials. I can only admire the work that this people do and look at them with respect for the hard work that they used to do so easy.

The hard work that this people do… i am sure it makes they`er spirit more powerful. It’s not very easy to dance with the sledge hammer on those beats. Each peace of the chain is forge welded. Quite hard to find a week link when so much work is involved. I am sure that this people do what they do with passion and this is the reason why they stand all the hard work in the shop. First part : Second part:

I will try to present you what kind of work we do inside our shop.Forging in 2 people.Making a spike from a 12mm thick bar.This is what i mean when i refer to the hand forged iron inside our shop .

Forging alone splitting out the end of a flat bar

This is the process of forging and forming a scroll in the way that it was meant to be done. The iron is heated in the forge and then hammered into the desired shape. We have to heat the iron in order for it not to spring back while forming. You can now see what makes hand forged elements so special, and why they have a greater value than a machined one. It is very easy to recognize a machine work and a hand made item… no matter how good the blacksmith is, he can’t make 2 items to be exactly the same. There are always tiny variations because no hammer can fall exactly on the same spot every time, while a machine is just doing them, no sweat, no pain, no character and also no real value. Let’s say you look at a beautiful old gate made many years ago…What will you see ? You will see rivets instead of welds. You will see forged spikes instead of cheap cast ones. You will see character, and if you look close enough, you can probably still see some hammer marks left by the blacksmith that worked so hard making it. This is what gives value to a forged gate and not to some prefabricated elements welded toghether. I give you as an example this picture.. all you have to do is look at it and you will be able to see what I am talking about.

[singlepic=99,280,272]

This is the proces of making such a scroll