Colonial Blacksmith

The blacksmith was an important person in villages before as well as during colonial times. These were professionals who created tools made of iron. The blacksmiths were important members of villages especially in North American colonies. The effects of Industrial Revolution were not observed in colonial regions to a great extent and these parts of the world still used iron tools made by blacksmiths. In colonial times, the blacksmiths proved to be of great help to the society. The different iron tools made by blacksmiths included a variety of items such as: swords, hatchets, bullets, ax heads, nails, hooks, anchors, anchor chains, anvils, shipwright tools, iron hoops, hammer heads, hinges, wheel barrows, gate and gate locks.

Facts about Colonial Blacksmith

The place at which the blacksmith used to work was referred to as 'The Forge'. A huge-sized hearth could be seen at the forge. The hearth was used for heating the iron. The blacksmith tried to maintain the hearth as hot as possible. Heat required for the forge was produced by burning coal. Bellows were used to direct air into the heart. The bellows were useful in controlling the airflow which helped in regulating the heat of hearth. Anvil was the platform used for working by the blacksmiths. Blacksmith maintained their workplace dark as it allowed to view the shape of the red hot iron under hammer properly. In the normal daylight, it is difficult to find how hot the iron it; this can be done best in dark as the iron turns red by heating.

Tools Used by Blacksmiths

Different colonial blacksmith tools include the hammer, tongs and fuller. Bending of hot iron into the desired shape was carried out with the help of hammer. Tongs were useful in handling hot iron pieces. It needed great amount of care to handle the tongs and manipulate the hot objects. Fuller was a tool used by blacksmiths to pound grooves in hot iron. This tool proved to be useful in making the iron pieces longer.

The colonial blacksmith shop was a place to obtain iron tools required in day-to-day work. As stated earlier, the blacksmiths were important part of the society in colonial rule. The program of apprenticeship was used for training the newbies. Let us obtain some information about this apprenticeship program.

Apprenticeship

The apprenticeship used to be an important part in the lives of blacksmiths; the age of 14-15 years was when this training period began for these newbies; this period of training continued from 4-7 years. During this entire period of apprenticeship, they had to live with an experienced blacksmith and learn the necessary skills. The initial period in the apprenticeship program involved the activity of carefully watching the senior blacksmith on how does he make iron tools. Helping the blacksmith in common tasks was the work assigned to these trainees. Advanced training involved the task of bending iron, making pots, etc. The final test that trainees had to pass was that of making a masterpiece. The master blacksmith judged the quality of this tool made by the trainee. Upon passing this test, the trainees were allowed to work as tradesmen. They traveled to nearby villages to make and repair tools. As the tradesmen became capable of setting up a shop, the masters would provide them with tools and necessary financial help. In this way, the apprenticeship program was instrumental in the process of training blacksmiths.

The facts about colonial blacksmith presented in the article give an overview of nature of their work. Apprenticeship used to be an important phase in the lives of these professionals before they could lay a claim to their own forge.