I am watching Modern Marvels on the History Channel. They just told that a century there were 23000 blacksmiths in the USA, today only 600 remain.
They need to check their facts, the membership of ABANA at over 4000 and the members of IFI.

Glenn and I were talking about how many members we have here but I know that it was over 600.
Matter of fact I think that there are over 600 full time professional smiths.

Even the figure that ABANA publishes about the amount of smiths in 1973 is suspect. I was forging at home and college, as were many of my friends. And I know we were not included in their count. I did not know ABANA existed until I met Dimetri Gerakaris in 1979.

The membership of ABANA at over 4,000
The membership of IForgeIron over 25,953 (or 6-1/2 times the membership of ABANA)

maybe the concept was trade ticketed smiths? they are far more rare....
just sayin :)
just being a member of an association or a website does not make a smith.
there are a lot of members of sporting clubs out there that arent sportspeople!!

The figures are probably close to right, being taken from the census. Farriers are specialists now, and are counted separately. We have added lots of hobbyists in the last 40 years, and while there are plenty of welders, architectural ironworkers, bladesmiths, and others whose sidelines include anvil-smacking, Grant Sarver's definition of SOB (sole occupation blacksmith) is a professional rarity even now. Probably less than 1 in 10 ABANA members. And while thousands may visit this site and other sites, with all due respect, professionals chiming in are a rarity.

Professional welding (American Welding Society) and fabricated ironwork (National Ornamental & Miscellaneous Metal Association) are the norm these days, because that is where the money is. ABANA and the American Bladesmith Society can only dream of the membership fees and numbers that NOMMA and the AWS pull in. ABANA keeps its dues low, to get as many members as possible to survive. NOMMA and AWS fees are high, to keep out the amateurs. ABANA pitches tents in fields and parking lots, staffed with volunteers every couple of years in out of the way towns, and is lucky to break even. NOMMA and the AWS rent convention centers in major resort cities every year. And fill them.

A century ago and even earlier, Sears & Roebuck would mail order you anything under the sun, and every hamlet had a general mercantile with mass produced goods for sale.

Even in sparsely settled farming country you still needed a general blacksmith every 10 miles or so: primarily to shoe horses, and also to make and repair things. Then there were the rural trades and big city specialists in certain areas: cutlers & surgical tool makers like Rezin and Jim Bowie went to to have their fancy dress and presentation blades made, millwrights, mining and logging outfits, ships chandlers, wagon makers, architectural specialists, etc. Boilers powered the industrial world, not electricity. Every railroad (and there were lots) had a full repair shop every few hundred miles, every factory was self-sufficient, the list goes on and on.

An example of specialization from a local historic plantation home I sometimes demo at: tiny little mile-square Charlotte was the center of the first gold rush in the early 19th century, and had been producing iron and steel from charcoal furnaces since the late 1700's. This area was chock full of shops that could shoe mules, point up picks, and all the other farming and mining related tasks. When the US government decided to build a Mint here in the 1830's, they farmed out at least some of the building's ironwork to Nate, a slave and his two sons from an outlying area. Why? Because they were noted architectural smiths in the area, frequently doing custom work for the well-to-do.

Well, ... when you start BELIEVING what you hear on TV, ... "That way lies madness". :P



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Thanks, John McPherson for the thoughtful response. About specialization in sizable cities, my farrier mentor, Al Kremen, in 1963, told me that the farriers who shod the "bulls" would not socialize with the farriers who shod "carriage horses." By "bulls," I think that he meant draft horses, large street horses who were hitched to drays, and oxen. The carriage horses were "light legged horses." Al maintained that the two classes of farriers would frequent separate saloons...would not drink together.

Al was brought up with horses since childhood, the 1920's and 30's, and his father was a retired cavalry man, so I believed him.

You know, I never put two and two together, after the race track I became a "Bulls" farrier...Didn't have any shoer friends who weren't after that. The reason I left the track ? the new guy got stuck with the owners who didn't pay until they felt like it. The draft people always left the cash even if they weren't there. ( I also learned from a retired Cavalry man )

Each of us probably have unique resumes in our path to discovering the benefits of being able to forge metals. What an exploration it has been. Totally satisfied after 25 years; I am just above a beginner.

Each of us probably have unique resumes in our path to discovering the benefits of being able to forge metals. What an exploration it has been. Totally satisfied after 25 years; I am just above a beginner.

Eddie Rainey
www.gallopforge.com


Very nice work. quite a step 'above beginner' in my eyes.

]You're right John, how many of us put down "Blacksmith" on the Occupation line of our taxes. The reporter from Modern Marvels probably researched it very well.

If you're sitting in front of the boob tube as much as I have since the accident you'll spot many mistakes, especially in so called "educational" shows. Modern Marvels is entertaining and often an eye opener, certainly better information than the "learning" channel or discovery let alone Nat Geo. At least Nat Geo doesn't call itself educational as stridently as the others. In any case they make decent departure points for more detailed research.

Speaking of iron on the tube has anyone noticed how much good forged iron there is on "The Mentalist"? I'm thinking the director, producer or maybe the director of photography really LIKES forged iron work. The number of scenes shot through well focused iron work is a given per episode.

Frosty The Lucky.

You're right John, how many of us put down "Blacksmith" on the Occupation line of our taxes. The reporter from Modern Marvels probably researched it very well.

I always just write in 'welder' on my taxes lest some pencil necked geek thinks I'm up to something and earmarks my return for an audit..... <_<

In my area I had to regester as a welding shop to get a service licence. They just do not reconize the trade any more. I could not regester as a Farrier.