Blacksmith tools in the past

Blacksmiths always had their own tools. They made most of the tools themselves, which was arranged in the workshop as best suited each blacksmith. In a traditional smithy, the two basic tools, along fire and anvil, were a hammer and a pair of tongs.

                                                                                                                                        /Blacksmiths always had their own tools./

Every smithy was equipped with lots of hand and sledge hammers, tongs and pliers. Lump hammers, straight-peen, and cross-peen hammers could weigh from mere 9oz up to 13lb and had different types of heads. Numerous and diverse tongs and pliers with long handles were adapted for different usages and had different jaws. The real helper in transforming iron was an anvil. It had an opening for inserting hammers that enabled individual forming of iron depending on straight, semicircular, ball or pointed head type. Many other tools were used for making or repairing iron objects, like punches, chisels, different files, etc.

                                                                                                                                     /The real helper in transforming iron was an anvil./

Bigger, factory-made tools included large and small clamps, hand-drilling machines, belt-driven cutting hammers, presses, and shaping scissors for cutting sheet metal. Every smithy also had drills for line pins and the corresponding keys.

Creative iron blacksmith workshop