Jump to content
I Forge Iron

LOL!! Blacksmithing in Hollywood


SReynolds

Recommended Posts

History Channel; The Men Who Built America

 

If you have seen this presentation you know what I'm about to mention...........

 

The blacksmith along the side of the street, on the sidewalk no less. Banging on a cold horseshoe. The anvil was bouncing upon a wooden whisky barrel, about stomach height. 

 

That is how Andrew Carnegie got the vision to make a bridge for the PRR from steel to span the miss river.

 

He SHOULD have gotten the idea to inform that poor sap of a blacksmith to set his anvil upon a tree stump and tie it down tight about knuckle heigh.............and to heat the horseshoe in a forge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While these are good examples of Hollywood interpretations of blacksmithy, I laughed more at the dwarven smiths in The Hobbit (ok it was meant to be fantastical and was actually pretty cool).

That ring of them all pounding away at the same piece and that apparently unfazed one who just held up a glowing hot piece to be pounded by those two huge hammers like it was just plastic and the hammers feathers...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 that apparently unfazed one who just held up a glowing hot piece to be pounded by those two huge hammers like it was just plastic and the hammers feathers...

 

I LOVED that quick scene.  The lovely wife cracked up as well. I keep trying to figure out how that set up would work, given the fantasy, dwarves and magic component of the whole series.  Some sort of production work, the twin hammers on a regular cycle, a series of...lets say hammer heads, being punched and eyed and the final shaping of the faces (Brian Brazeal rounding hammer faces of course) being done in one fell swoop by the twin hammers.

 

How the dwarf was holding the hot metal could be an issue, but the magical/fantasy element could explain (or spell) that away.

 

the smith not looking up and holding the work perfectly centered was impressive. The later scenes did show a significant number of scenes where the dwarves all work together with almost subconcious connection to one another. Combine that with a 350 year life span and you'd get some really accomplished smithing, fantasy/magical components allowed for, of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...