T
H E B L A C K S M I T H
A
blacksmith is an artisan specializing in the hand-wrought manufacture
of ferrous (iron) metal objects, such as wrought iron gates, grills,
railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, weapons, decorative
and religious items, cooking utensils and tools. Generally, blacksmiths
did not work the non ferrous metals (tin, brass, bronze, etc.). These
required a separate set of skills and acquired their own specialists.
Blacksmiths did not usually make things that were purely decorative
in that, until the invention of stainless steel, the ferrous metals
will rust quickly if not protected with some coating.
Blacksmiths
work by heating pieces of metal (wrought iron or steel) with a forge
until the metal becomes malleable enough to be shaped to a desired
outcome via repeated manipulation with a hammer, punch or other tooling
against an anvil. Heating is accomplished by the use of propane, natural
gas, coal, charcoal, or coke. Modern blacksmiths may also employ oxyacetalene
torches and electric induction furnaces as a heating medium. The other
reason for heating the metal, other than for increasing its malleability,
is for metallurgical purposes. The metal can be hardened, tempered,
normalized, annealed, case hardened, and other more exotic processes
that change things like the grain structure.
Specific to the craft of the blacksmith, when working with steels,
the metal can be heated and then quenched. The purpose of this is
to produce rapid cooling to generate specific microstructures in the
metal. A quench generally results in steel that is hard and brittle,
so a tempering process takes place to increase the toughness of the
alloy and reduce the hardness. This involves heating the material
to a specific temperature. With most tool steels, this tempering process
can be gauged by the appearance of a coloured oxidation tint on the
metal surface. Different uses require different hardness and toughness
combinations, and so receive different temperings. It is possible
to temper different parts of an object to different levels, which
is one area where the skill of the blacksmith comes into play. For
example, the face of a hammer is often left as a harder material than
the main body, giving a blend of the hard wearing face with a resilient
and tough tool. Japanese samurai sword makers were particularly adept
at making their weapons very hard on the cutting edge while keeping
the main body of the blade tough to support the cutting edge in powerful
jarring blows.
Blacksmiths work with 'black' metals, especially iron (see wrought
iron), while whitesmiths work with 'white' metals (such as tin and
lead), although such artisans are more commonly called tinsmiths.
The word 'whitesmith' also traditionally refers to a smith who, instead
of leaving the finished product black, files and polishes his products
to a reflective, or "white" luster. The term 'black' metals
arises from the layer of oxides that form on the surface of the metal
during heating (called fire scale). The black metals have a dark firescale,
whilst the white metals show a light coloured firescale, if any. The
art of working with the precious metals (gold and silver, primarily)
is known as goldsmithing. The term "Smith" originates from
the word "Smite", which means to hit. Thus, a blacksmith
is a person who smites the black metals. (The suffix "-smith"
has since come to refer to other crafts. For instance, a woodworker
is sometimes called a "woodsmith", though hitting wood is
only a marginal part of his craft.) In recent years the forging of
stainless steel has given rise to a fresh approach to architectural
blacksmithing. The work of Giusseppe Lund illustrates this well.
Mass production techniques have reduced the marketplace for blacksmith
work except in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America where
large numbers of artisans remain doing traditional work. The great
demand for custom metalwork has given rise to a new breed of smiths
commonly known as Artist-Blacksmiths.
Source: WIKIPEDIA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmith
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