A blacksmith is a craftsperson who heats iron or steel in a forge until it glows red-hot, then hammers and shapes it into useful objects.

For thousands of years, blacksmiths were essential members of every community. They made horseshoes to protect horses' hooves, tools like axes and plows for farmers, nails and hinges for builders, and weapons and armor for soldiers. A skilled blacksmith could look at a piece of glowing metal and know exactly where to strike it with a hammer to bend it into the right shape.

The blacksmith's workshop, called a smithy or forge, centers around a special furnace that burns hot enough to soften metal. Using bellows to pump air and make the fire hotter, the blacksmith heats the metal, then moves quickly to shape it on an anvil, the heavy iron block you've probably seen in cartoons. The rhythmic clang, clang, clang of hammer on anvil was once a common sound in every town.

While factories now mass-produce most metal goods, blacksmiths today create custom metalwork, decorative pieces, knives, and tools using these same ancient techniques. Some blacksmiths specialize in shoeing horses and are called farriers. The trade combines artistic creativity with physical strength and an understanding of how metal behaves when heated and cooled.