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Blacksmithing brought alive
 | | Highlands Chapter charter member, Janet Mullenax, and speaker Tom Klatka discuss local blacksmiths. |
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MONTEREY - Have you heard the ringing of iron on an anvil and felt the heat of red, hot coals in the forge? Was there a local shop and a smithy that you can remember in the Highlands?
The ancient art of blacksmithing was brought alive gently and humorously on a recent, chilly evening by Tom Klatka, from the Department of Historic Resources in Roanoke, for a gathering of the Highlands Chapter of the Archaeological Society.
Klatka's archaeological work on blacksmithing in the Catawba valley of Virginia gives a good picture of the evolution of blacksmithing - from 16th century farriers to repair shops for wagons and buggies, farm implements, tools, nails and myriad other metal implements used in agriculture and around the home.
In modern times blacksmithing has become more of an art form than an agricultural or community necessity. Many early farms, however, had a small forge as a necessary part of maintaining equipment and keeping workhorses shod. The shops had a relatively typical structure and many are still readily identified by the roof overhang on the front doors, with large horizontal, shuttered windows over work benches and, of course, the forge, which was usually made of rock. The building often faced south or southeast to take advantage of the light and weather.
Larger community shops developed a later where larger pieces could be produced and multiple smiths could work on a variety of projects. In the late 1800s, the invention of the portable forge allowed many farmers to purchase equipment and learn to blacksmith using manuals. But in the community sense, the art was often passed in families and from one generation to the next to form the "Brotherhood of Iron."
As times changed on farms and in the country, new technologies replaced blacksmithing. These buildings were often recycled - or adaptively reused - to another purpose. For the archaeologist or historian to find a shop, with its forge, bellows, bench vise and quenching bucket in place, is very satisfying. Excavation of a shop usually yields only a great deal of cinder and metal bits.
Most of Klatka's research depended on tax records, census reports, test pits and excavations. But a critical piece was often oral history - local folks' memories of their communities in earlier times. Researching the past can sometimes bring a better understanding to the present - and the Highlands are rich in history.
Perhaps the brotherhood of iron, the blacksmiths from the past, can be better understood through lines chiseled on a Welsh headstone in the British Isles:
My sledge and hammer lay reclined,
My bellows, too, have lost their wind,
My fire's extinct, my forged decayed,
And in the dust my vise is laid;
My coal is spent, my iron gone, My nails are driven-my work is done.
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