When you think of a blacksmith, what do you imagine? Do you picture a soot-spattered worker from a renaissance fair or fantasy setting? If so, you might be surprised to learn that blacksmithing is still a modern-day practice. Keep reading to discover some modern-day blacksmithing applications that you might recognize.
Furniture
Blacksmiths are known for working with metal. The whole blacksmithing process requires smelting metal from an ore by heating it past the metal’s melting point. Once a blacksmith has their desired metal, they can form it into nearly anything. One of the applications for blacksmithing is metal furniture. Patio and other metal furniture feature intricately designed legs, seats, and backs, which require metals to be heated and maneuvered.
Art
Some blacksmiths use the metal-heating process to create art out of different working materials. Blacksmiths know how to cut, turn, and twist metal into a variety of shapes and designs, and experienced blacksmiths have precise control over their materials. These techniques are perfect for designing and constructing metal art and other features.
Weapons
Blacksmiths who craft replica weapons are known as bladesmiths, and they’re just one of the different types of smiths. Weapons-crafting is common in modern blacksmithing, and it’s even featured on reality TV shows such as Forged in Fire. Some blacksmiths, who are known as gunsmiths, even specialize in crafting and repairing firearms and firearm parts.
Tools
Blacksmithing techniques can also be used to make modern tools. We have these blacksmithing techniques to thank for tools that we use every day, such as chisels, hammers, hoes, vices, and shovels. Modern blacksmiths can even construct axes and crowbars.
Hardware
Planning a construction project? Some of your building materials and other hardware may stem from blacksmithing techniques, too. Some examples of blacksmith-made hardware include keys, locks, hooks, nails, screws, and more. Many of these objects are mass-produced nowadays, but professional and independent blacksmiths are fully capable of constructing such items, too.
These have been some of the modern-day blacksmithing applications and crafts that many modern blacksmiths create. Were you surprised to find that modern blacksmithing techniques are infused into so many of the items we use every day?
