What did blacksmiths make in the 1800's

[Will Brouwers]

I figured this forum would be a good place to pick your brains. I have done some research elsewhere online, but it amounts to "they made horseshoes."

This question is mostly just some research for fun, but I also would like to focus on this time period when I forge. I also realize that the 19th century is a wide range of time. I also realize that the responsibilities of a blacksmith in an east coast city would be different than out west. I just wonder if blacksmiths out west were still making things nails in the 18th century. Any thoughts are appreciated, and any sources are doubly appreciated!

 

Will

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Quote

For the basic repair of farm implements such as plows, rakes, and other equipment, blacksmiths typically earned between one dollar and a dollar and a half per day. For the creation of a new product, blacksmiths could expect to earn an average of five and a half dollars per day.Sep 29, 2019

This is from Working The Flame. It's an interesting read.

https://workingtheflame.com/blacksmith-life-1800s/

This also has some good information about wages.

https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1860-1869

[ThomasPowers]

Are you concerned only with the USA?  If So;  what part of the 1800's?   "Practical Blacksmithing" was published in 1889, 1890 and 1891.    I have a 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog that shows what was available pretty much everywhere in the USA back then.

You do know that there was a major change after the Bessemer/Kelly process, 1856,  started the switch from real wrought iron to mild steel. 

Civil War Blacksmithing describes some of the stuff used then.  Lot of info on the Fur Trade era in the early 1800's.   

So *details*!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Will Brouwers]

Thanks for that link Irondragon, it was very helpful!

Thomas, I am only concerned with the U.S. mostly between 1800-1850.

[George N. M.]

As Thomas says, it is what would sell in a particular area.  The blacksmiths at the forts along the immigration trails would have largely been doing wagon repairs for the immigrants with a shift to local/domestic work during the winter.  Smiths at fur trading posts would have been making items which could be traded to Native Americans for furs and hides such as awls, firesteels, and anything else.  Knives and tomahawks were usually factory made back east or in England and shipped west.  Smiths in towns did much the same things they did back east, wagon and buggy repair, horseshoeing, and repair of farm equipment from the surrounding area.  Smiths in mining areas would have been making mining specific equipment like miner's candlesticks ("tommy stickers") and repairing mining and milling equipment such as sharpening rock drills and picks as well as the normal wagon and buggy repair and other domestic work.

Nail making in quantity by smiths or families at home in the winter is more of a 18th century/early 19th phenomenon.  Nails were one of the early factory made products.  If transportation made factory made nails expensive, say in a mining area before the arrival of the railroad, the local smith may have been able to make money by producing nails and spikes for mine timbers.

I'll check on some references when I go out to my shop and library.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[ThomasPowers]

OK, 1800-1850; so real wrought iron and "cast steel" would have been your materials and most places you would have been using charcoal and a bellows.  Anvils tended to be smaller and blockier, US anvils with long horns and heels tended to be late 1800's and into the 1900's.  Now would you be on the eastern seaboard, north or south, the western frontier, or in the Southwest in the Spanish colonies?   (I'll assume that the Russian colony in what is now California is right out... "Two Years Before the Mast" published in 1840 talks a bit about how California was pre gold rush; from a Sailor's perspective.)

[JHCC]

The Russian Orthodox priest Father Ioann Veniaminov trained as a blacksmith and carpenter before undertaking his missionary work in Alaska; he even made the clock in the original St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka (which burned down in 1966). The Russian settlement in Fort Ross, CA was active until 1841.

[Will Brouwers]

Thomas, I appreciate you honing my area of interest. I know I have posted similar questions in other threads, and I apologize for my obsession. I am interested in what a blacksmith would have done in both the East and the West, mostly in the Northeast and Northwest, as well as Midwest. I think I am still trying to figure out how to represent, as accurately as possible, a specific time period and place. 

[George N. M.]

Will, not to split historical hairs too fine but do you mean the Old Northwest, generally the Great Lakes Region, or the Pacific Northwest, WA, OR, & ID?  Since they were settled at different times blacksmith activity would have been different.

GNM

[ThomasPowers]

IIRC there is a archeological study out about a blacksmith's shop in Southern Canada from during the Fur Trade era anybody want to dig that out?

Also "To Draw Upset and Weld"  A collection of Daybooks from  rural Pennsylvania from 1742 to 1935.  (A daybook is the ledger that a smith kept about what he did and how much he charged for it. Only 80 pages so try to ILL it rather than pay outrageous prices for it!)   Of course any book on old time ironwork that has good pictures and DATES would provide ideas on what smiths made: "Early Lighting in New England", "Early American Wrought Iron", "Colonial Ironwork in old Philadelphia" , "Early American Andirons",  "Antique Iron", books on down hearth cooking, etc.  Of course the fancy stuff tends to be documented better than the plain everyday stuff.  Take a look at the stuff the Lewis and Clark expedition had to bring with them! 

[anvil]

An excellent book that covers what a blacksmith made during the time you are interested in is " Early American Wrought Iron", by Albert Sonn. Its 3 volumes in one up to the 1850's. it covers everything from kitchen ware and hinges to gates and railings. Actually whats shown here pretty well describes what blacksmiths made during that timeframe world wide, with, of course regional, national, and art period differences from gothic to contemporary. For instance an example of an American colonial hinge pattern or style could be found in Europe, Russia, or south and central America, often with no or little differences. 

 

[Les L]

Will, a couple of places I can recommend to visit to view the work, and talk to the blacksmith making the items, are Colonial Williamsburg and the Sam Huston museum. All work is performed period correct by the workers. 

[Will Brouwers]

Thanks again for all the replies. I am mainly interested in the Great Lakes Region, but just learning what blacksmiths made is a great place to start, so thank you for those suggestions!