A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut. Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There was an historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operation of a whitesmith, who usually worked in gold, silver, pewter, or the finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is called variously a smithy, a forge or a blacksmith's shop.
Picture of Vince J. Heilman (1918–2000) taken by the local newspaper around 1970
Statue of a blacksmith (Monument to John Cockerill in Brussels).
Smithing process in Mediterranean environment, Valencian Museum of Ethnology
Blacksmith Apolinar Aguilar at the furnace of his blade workshop in Ocotlan de Morelos, Oaxaca, Mexico
A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items out of various metals. Smithing is one of the oldest metalworking occupations. Shaping metal with a hammer (forging) is the archetypical component of smithing. Often the hammering is done while the metal is hot, having been heated in a forge. Smithing can also involve the other aspects of metalworking, such as refining metals from their ores, casting it into shapes (founding), and filing to shape and size.
A bladesmith from Damascus, c. 1900
Coppersmith Abdón Punzo in his workshop in Santa Clara del Cobre, Mexico
"Aeolus's Weathervane" – detail of a weather vane created by using a variety of metalsmithing techniques