Iron at the center of daily life
Wood and stone provided structure, but iron gave tools their edge and strength. Plow parts, axes, knives, hinges, nails, hooks, chains and horseshoes were all made of iron or steel, and almost all of it passed through the hands of a smith. The blacksmith, who worked iron, and related trades that worked other metals, therefore supported farming, building, travel and war.
The word smith by itself often meant a worker in iron. Specialized terms existed too: farriers shod horses, locksmiths made locks and keys, and armorers produced protective gear. In small settlements, one smith did most of these jobs; in towns, the trades divided more finely.
The forge and its equipment
A blacksmith’s workplace, the forge, centered on a hearth where charcoal burned. Charcoal produces higher heat than raw wood and with less smoke and fewer impurities, which is why the trade depended on charcoal burners. A bellows, usually worked by hand or by an assistant, forced air onto the fire to raise the temperature. Iron was heated until it glowed and became soft enough to shape.
Basic equipment included an anvil, hammers of several sizes, tongs for holding hot metal, chisels, punches, files and a trough of water for quenching, which means cooling hot metal quickly. Smiths judged temperature by color. Iron glowing dull red, bright orange or near yellow-white indicates different heat levels, and skilled smiths read these colors by eye and by experience. Because color judgment depended on light, many forges were kept fairly dim.
Working iron
Iron arrived at the smith in the form of bars or blooms produced from ore in smelting. Early smelting produced a spongy mass called a bloom, which was reheated and hammered to drive out slag and consolidate the metal, making wrought iron. In the later Middle Ages, in some regions, larger furnaces and water-powered hammers and bellows increased output, an example of how watermills and windmills affected industry. The changes did not occur everywhere at once.
Basic forge techniques include drawing out, which lengthens and thins a piece by hammering; upsetting, which thickens it; bending; punching holes; and forge welding. In forge welding, two pieces of iron are heated to a high temperature, often with a flux such as sand, and hammered together until they fuse. This allowed smiths to build up larger objects and to join iron with steel.
Steel is iron with a controlled amount of carbon, harder than soft wrought iron and capable of taking a keen edge. Smiths could make steel through methods involving heating iron in a charcoal-rich environment, or buy it from specialist producers. A cutting tool might have a steel edge welded to an iron body. Heat treating, which involves heating and quenching the steel and then tempering it with lower heat, adjusted hardness and toughness. Medieval smiths learned these procedures by practice, without modern explanations of the chemistry.
What the smith made
The range of work is wide.
- Agricultural goods: plowshares, coulters, sickles, scythes, hoes, spades and tines. Blades that wore down quickly in soil were repaired and replaced often.
- Building and household hardware: nails, hinges, latches, locks, hooks, pothooks, chains, cooking tools and fittings for doors and chests.
- Horse and vehicle gear: horseshoes, bits, stirrups, spurs, and iron tires or fittings for carts and wagons.
- Craft tools: hammers, chisels and saws for carpenters and masons, whose work depended on the forge to keep tools sharp.
- Weapons and armor: swords, knives, spearheads, arrowheads, helmets and mail, although the finest arms and armor came from specialist workshops in major centers. Medieval swords were the work of skilled craftspeople rather than ordinary village smiths.
Other metals had their own trades. Goldsmiths and silversmiths made jewelry, plate and church vessels; pewterers made tableware from tin alloys; coppersmiths and braziers made cooking vessels; bellfounders cast bells. Gold and silver craft was often the most prestigious metal trade and appears often in town records as a guild of high standing.
The smith in village and town
In a village, the smith often held a recognized place. He might hold land or receive payment in produce, or a customary share of grain from villagers for services, depending on local arrangements within the manor. The lord of the manor sometimes provided or owned the forge and charged for use. A smith repairing a plow before spring planting performed a task on which the community’s harvest depended.
Because smiths used fire, towns often regulated where they could work, sometimes confining forges to certain streets. Noise, smoke and the risk of fire made them troublesome neighbors. In towns, smiths belonged to craft guilds, which controlled training and quality. Farriers, in particular, shod horses and treated their ailments, and the role is often noted as a link between metalwork and animal care.
A smith might also take on small tasks outside the usual job, from pulling teeth to making locks, according to local need, although the details of such customs are not well documented in every place.
Skill, status and reputation
Smiths carried a mixed reputation in folklore. Their control of fire and transformation of metal gave them an air of mystery, and in some traditions they were figures of power. At the same time, the work was dirty, hot and dangerous, with burns, eye injuries and hearing damage among the risks. Social standing varied: a successful town smith could be prosperous, while a village smith’s income depended on a small local market.
Smiths learned through apprenticeship, usually beginning with tasks such as working the bellows and fetching fuel before being allowed to shape iron. Years of practice built the strength and judgment needed.
Limits of the evidence
Surviving iron objects are often corroded, and iron was recycled, so many tools were reforged rather than buried. Archaeology of smithing sites, which reveals slag, hammerscale and tools, has added to the picture, but information on individual smiths is thin and mostly comes from court records, accounts and wills.