Questions about Blacksmithing

 



Why the title The Last of the Blacksmiths? Aren’t blacksmiths still around?

You’re right, blacksmiths are very much still around – there’s a revival going on in artisan crafts, including blacksmithing. The Northwest Blacksmithing Association and other similar associations are increasing in numbers every year. Blacksmiths today are doing very cool stuff – gates and sculpture and knives. But it’s more about ornamental art now, not of survival.

Nineteenth century blacksmiths were an entirely different profession. Blacksmiths used to be the lifeblood of human society – if you didn’t have a blacksmith to turn to for farming tools and cooking pots, to repair the wheel on your wagon or make chain, you were out of luck. The title The Last of the Blacksmiths reflects how the artisan craft of blacksmithing via the apprentice/journeyman/master system had virtually vanished by the early twentieth century.



In what way can readers relate to a nineteenth century blacksmith?

Early on in my novel research, I thought blacksmiths shoed horses. Actually, those are farriers. Book learning didn’t help either. I for one am too detached from the time before machines, the time when things were crafted by hand. It wasn’t until I took a beginning blacksmithing class and spent four solid days at the anvil that I began to understand. Blacksmithing, like the other artisan crafts, is taught by demonstration, learn by example and practice. During the class, I managed to make a few tools and fireplace pokers, not a true initiation, but at least a start. Those four days were nothing compared to what blacksmiths endured — toiling ten to twelve hours six days a week. Quite frankly, these days without machines we’d be hard-pressed to survive.

It’s only been a few hundred years since industrialization gained a firm foothold. The pace of change was staggering, new inventions (and patents) flooding in, technology increasing every day. The canal system of travel, so arduous to build, was obsolete within a few decades due to the railroads. The telegraph made it possible to send messages instantly. By the mid-19th century, a cable uncoiled across the Atlantic Ocean made it possible to communicate between the U.S. and Europe. Our lives are merely a continuation of that frenetic pace of change.



The main character of The Last of the Blacksmiths migrated to the U.S. to apprentice as a blacksmith. Why didn’t he just apprentice in Germany?

Lots of things were happening in nineteenth century Europe, including the growth of factories in the cities, but the primary reason blacksmiths left was due to a rise in population. Two or three blacksmiths per village were too many — no one could make a living. In the New World, on the other hand, there was huge demand for blacksmiths – for farm tools, for axes, for wagons and ploughs.



Your protagonist was a blacksmith in a wagon-making shop. How is that different from other blacksmiths?

The village blacksmith generally could do anything and everything related to metal—crafting and repairing farm tools, cookware, knives, horseshoes, etc. Wagon-making shops were divided into four different departments — woodworking, painting, upholstery, and blacksmithing. The blacksmiths made the gearing and iron tires, the lamp brackets and step plates–anything to do with the metal fittings on a coach or wagon. Many types of wagons and carriages existed in those days, just as many types of trucks, vans and cars exist today. Some of our modern cars even have old carriage names – cabriolet and victoria and brougham.



Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Good question! Learning about the previous couple of centuries has enlightened me. Many historical novels focus on royalty and celebrities, but my book is about salt-of-the-earth people – immigrant stock from whom most of us descend. It was an incredibly diverse population. The protagonist in my novel invests his life in an artisan-style culture – a small family-run business. By the end of his life, blacksmithing was no longer a viable profession and car manufactories were taking over the horse-drawn carriage businesses. Michael Harm’s life work was eclipsed by the next generation, just as ours will be. In the end, winning or losing doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of what constitutes a life well-lived.

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