In addition to making horse shoes, a village’s Blacksmith would have created in whole or parts of utensils, various tools and weapons, and wagon works.

The early blacksmith was integral to the village’s survival. Not only did he repair and create various tools and parts made of iron, but also, in a larger sense, he helped build and sustain the early village. For example, an early blacksmith made nails one by one, so that the villagers could build their houses. The blacksmith, then, was quite literally responsible for holding together the whole village.

An interesting aside about the nails is the following: because nail making was a time consuming process and blacksmiths were hard to come by, nails were relatively expensive, and therefore, when people moved on (to a new village, or to pioneer new land), they’d burn down their old house just to salvage the nails, which could then be used to build a new house.

The Blacksmith shop at Pioneer Threshermans Association shows off the basic tools of the trade: forge, anvil, hammer, tongs, vise, file.