Blacksmith
There are three essentials to a good shop: Plenty of Ventilation, A floor of gravel or concrete and A hot forge.
The blacksmith played a vital role in his community and was accorded his due respect. The shop itself was often a place where people socialized while waiting for something to be made or repaired. A trip to the blacksmith was a welcome break from plowing, logging or hoeing corn.
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, there was hardly a facet of life his work did not touch upo0n. The blacksmith forged objects of metal (usually iron, sometimes steel). He was the maker of many of the tools and other work related items such as ox yokes, harness fittings, rakes, hoes, shovels, etc.
Their needs were simple good light, space for working, raw materials, work tables, a bellows for the forge, a coal bin, and a water tub (slack tub) large enough for cooling and tempering items. An anvil and the proper tools to fashion whatever the order might be, were the essentials of their trade.
Good tools- sharp tools were the name of the game! Tools, lathes and benches must be available to the blacksmith as he turned from the forge with a piece of hot iron. The heated stock was placed on the anvil to be drawn out or punches, bent, or cut. Other tools were the chisels, cleavers, tongs, punches, files, hand drills, soldering irons, files, hack saws, and a measuring wheel called the traveler. Grindstones, vises and mandrills (the great cones used to form or stretch circular objects).
Most northern blacksmiths used a form of charcoal to heat their forge. If available, hard coal was preferred. (The making of charcoal in the late 1800's is a story in itself!.)
Blacksmiths were often wood workers also, as many of the tools they make needed wooden handles or spokes and frames for wagon wheels. Many things needed to be welded, cut and shaped with the hammers. They also could make horse shoes and many items for farmers such as: plow points, bits and other metal hardware for harness', ox shoes and yokes, tool handles, hoes, shovels, mattocks, go-devils, gate latches, grain cradles, scythes, sickles, digging irons, crowbars, cowbells, adzes, broad axes, wedges, barrel hoops, and wagons (the wheels and all the wood and 100 plus metal parts, including brake rods, nuts, bolts, pins, washers, hound plates, tumbling rods, braces, etc.).
Our blacksmith shop was the old school house from Springdale Township, Redwood County, MN. It had been used for some years as a town hall before coming to the museum site. The interior items were donated by many people. The overhead pulleys and lathes were part of a shop in Ruthton, MN donated by Richard Imker. The smaller forges were given by Frank Lessman and John Walterman.
(Information from: FOXFIRE 5, edited by Eliot Wigginton, Anchor Press, 1979.)
Items a blacksmith might be asked to make for the home would be: crocheting, knitting and misc. needles, shoe buttons, button hooks, knives, ice tongs, trivets, hinges, door knockers, window hooks, shutter dogs, and items for the fireplace (pokers, tongs, shovels, and irons, cranes, pot hooks and jam hooks). For the hunter, he might fashion gun barrels, sights, locks, butt plates, trigger assemblies and guards, grip rails and various animal traps. The logging industry would be needling chains of various sizes, J grabs turning links, peaveys, axes and bull hooks. Just to name a few items.