What is blacksmithing?
What is the difference between blacksmithing, or forging, and casting, or foundry work? In a foundry, metal is heated to a liquid state. A mold is made from an original model, the molten metal is poured into the mold, and the result is a metal version of the original model. Casting can be called an indirect process: The original object was not metal. The molten metal fills the mold exactly, mimicking the surface of the original material. In contrast, the smith uses no mold, and his metal is not liquid. He heats the metal red-hot, and it becomes malleable, like clay. Forging is a direct process. The smith “directly” hammers, bends, twists, or cuts the red hot metal. He joins pieces together by fire-welding (which uses only a traditional blacksmith fire), rivets or other means. The smith uses his imagination and skill with these techniques to produce a wide variety of shapes, but the processes he uses influence the final form of the object. Because of this, forging is a language that bec
