CChartreux

Habu68 - thank you for the suggestion! ------------------------------ "If you are interested, I'll offer help in the technical proofing when you get something down on paper." (Sandy Creek Forge/#150) This might be very helpful to me; thank you for offering. It'll be a while before I actually have words on paper; however, I'll PM you in the next couple days on this. ------------------------------- For Ed Thomas - I sent a letter to the BGOP, so hopefully I'll hear something from them in the next couple of days or so. Thanks again for your assistance. CC

"May I suggest you read the papers from those times and see how smithing was advertised---they exist!" [ThomasPowers/#723] Wow - what an excellent idea....I never even thought of that. Thanks also for your other comments as well. The link to the PA Historical Society is very helpful - they have a 'daybook' from a blacksmith from 1825-1839 (the exact timeframe I'm looking for). This is most helpful. Thanks again!! CC

All - Thanks again very much for the info. I'll go ahead and contact the BGOP directly and see what I can put together. Thanks again, CC

Hi All - I am not a blacksmith or metal-worker; however, I'm writing a book right now (fiction) in which one of the main character's father is a blacksmith...in Philadelphia, PA, around 1820s-1840s. I was hoping there might be some folks here that could provide information, recommendations and/or advice for me towards making this character (the blacksmith) as authentic and historically accurate as possible. I have a few questions to ask - but if anyone thinks of anything else (not asked), please feel free to comment. I'd be most grateful for any assistance. What I've done so far: All of my blacksmith research so far has been conducted on the Internet - which is fine, there's some pretty basic stuff I have which is pretty useful. Where I start having a little bit of problem narrowing down information is placing it in a historical context. For example, there is a video available from Williamsburg (VA) tourism that illustrates and talks about blacksmiths in the Colonial period. I plan on checking this video out, however, I have no way of knowing how much technological change might have taken place between, say, the Colonial period and the period I'm looking at (1820-1840). It would seem that there wouldn't have been a whole lot of technological change in that 50 years...however, I don't know. If not much changed between the Colonial period and 1820-40s, then perhaps the video might be useful to me. Can anyone help/comment on this? Also - (this might sound like a stupid question)...are there any 'blacksmith demonstrations'. For example, places (museums?) that might have blacksmiths working where I could observe them? Would these be 'historical' or do such demonstrations (if they exist) basically show modern blacksmiths? [That said, however, based on your all's experience and expertise, perhaps having the opportunity to observe modern blacksmithing would still be valuable for my purposes - perhaps the difference isn't that great?] I live in Northern Virginia - so if anyone knows of any such thing, that would be most helpful. What I would really like to get a sense of in such a demonstration would be the sounds and smells of a blacksmith shop - the more vivid and accurate I can make these kinds of details, the more authentic and vivid I can make the character in my book 'come to life' (so to speak). Any assistance or recommended reading, etc., would be most welcome for my project. Thank you very much! CC