(forge handle clanking) - What a blacksmith does is heats iron, steel up to a temperature that it softens, usually about 16, 1700 degrees.

When the metal is that hot, it becomes pliable.

So you can actually shape it and form it and, and make things out of it.

(hammering softly) Blacksmith was your local mechanic.

He was your fix it shop.

If you had a farm machinery, piece of farm machinery break, or your horse needed shoes, you would go to the blacksmith.

And you didn't have local hardware stores like you do now.

You'd go to the blacksmith and he would make something for you.

If you needed a latch for your door or a handle for your door, or if you needed like, something fixed, you went to the blacksmith and he did that for you.

So he was a really critical part of the community.

And that's why every community had one.

And they were, they were sought after.

(forge handle clanking) So what I'm doing here is I'm using a forge.

And a forge is a special fireplace that the blacksmith uses in order to heat his steel.

I build a fire in the forge.

This lever operates a blower, which forces air into the fire to fan the fire and make it hotter.

Because I'm trying to get it up to this high temperature.

And when I'm at that temperature, my steel will be glowing orange, like that is.

And at that point, it's flexible enough that I can shape it and bend it to make something out of it.

(forge handle clanking) One of the big transitions for a blacksmith shop, like I said, he was the community mechanic repair shop.

A lot of 'em transitioned into automobile repair because that was the transition that they had to make back in the 20s and 30s.

(softly hammering) It really did almost die out in the 70s, but was revived through the interest of a number of people that started getting interested in the craft more on a artistic side.

It's really an artistic form as well.

I mean, you can really be creative with it and do some beautiful work.

(soft hammering) (people murmuring)