Diversity of Blacksmithing

Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new contribution and hope you have a week full of interesting experiences! In this article I would like to go into the art of blacksmithing and hope you can learn new things.

Blacksmithing is also known as one of the oldest crafts which can already look back on thousand of years of history and the traditional task of a blacksmith is to work with different metals and making different objects from it. For the processing of the metals, first simple tools were used which became better and better over time, which resulted in the production being made easier and more magnificent works could be created and already in the early days, the blacksmith produced works that were of great importance for everyday life such as dishes, tools, weapons or other objects. Over the years, this craft became more sophisticated and in addition to new production techniques, new metals were used and at the beginning copper, bronze and then iron were used and also various precious metals such as gold or silver were of great importance. The blacksmith was also responsible for the production of jewellery and the magnificent pieces of jewellery such as necklaces or amulets were already of great importance in ancient Egypt or other cultures and later more methods were developed to be able to produce works of art even more precisely and also other things such as minerals were combined with the pieces of jewellery to make them look even more magnificent.

At the beginning it was still known as its own name and during the Middle Ages it came to the fact that the blacksmith was increasingly divided and various areas arose such as the weaponsmith, goldsmith, nailsmith and many more. During the Middle Ages there was a blacksmith in almost every town who often could not save himself from orders and everywhere the work was needed and it came to the fact that the blacksmiths had taken a special position because everyone was dependent on the work and even if the work had changed due to industrialisation, there are still many blacksmiths who work traditionally. Even if there were variations or different types of production everywhere, the forges have developed all over the world and in almost all countries the work was important for the development of civilisation and how deeply the forges are anchored can also be found in mythology where there are numerous legends or gods who are associated with them. One of the best-known examples is probably the god of fire and blacksmithing Hephaestus from Greek mythology who had the tasks of making objects out of metal and well-known works such as the Thunderbolt of Zeus or even automated servants such as Talos which can also be considered as a precursor of robots were made by him. In some other cultures, the blacksmith was even considered the creator of the world, such as in Africa, where there are some legends of tribes in which the blacksmith is said to have created the world and the celestial bodies.

Many thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about art! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.