Bradford Industrial
Museum
Ground floor Galleries
First floor Galleries
Outdoors
Blacksmiths Workshop Display
Blacksmiths were common everywhere while there was a need for wrought iron to be shaped for individual purposes, especially of course for making and shoeing horses
This small room is a treasure trove of artefacts you would find in a Blacksmiths workshop.
Smithies or forges were once common features of every town and village. If the town was big enough for several blacksmiths to be employed, they would often specialise so as to get a larger piece of the forging pie. Someone might specialise in harness, another in wagon accoutrements, another in cooking implements, etc.
In times past, everyone "needed" a blacksmith. The blacksmith shoed horses, made and fixed tools, hardware, gates, utensels and so on. In modern times there is not an actual "need" for these things to be made by a blacksmith, they can all be bought. People have things made by a blacksmith because they "want" them hand made. On the other hand, there is still much "need" for animals to be shod. So the one trade has become divided into two specialties, blacksmith and farrier.
For heat, many forges use coal. ... Once the forge is heated using one of these energy sources, it's time to get to work. The blacksmith holds the metal using a pair of tongs and heats it up in the forge. Then, they hold the metal over a large anvil and hit it with a hammer, shaping it into the desired form.
A selection of blacksmith’s tongs. They are specially shaped for holding particular shapes and the smith might have used several during shaping a piece as it changed shape.