Strong men using iron tongs

golok

golok

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Oct 20, 2000
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It is a common belief that men who forge steel are physically strong.

This belief is based on the fact that wielding a heavy hammer and holding tongs to forge metal require a certain amount of energy. Repeated heatings on a red hot piece of iron would quickly sap a normal person's energy in record time.

Thus, muscles and strong bones are the prerequisite to being a hand-forging knifemaker.

What if you are puny chap who have big passions of joining this exclusive club? Wouldn't your lesser endowed physique be a disadvantage in your chosen profession?

Not so easy to build up those muscles. Or, is there a way to swing those hammer and tongs without using too much energy?
 
The common idea of a smith being a big heavily muscled man is something of a myth. It takes more skill and finess to forge than it does strength. You can forge all day long with smaller hammers if you want to. Heavier hammers are just used to move more metal faster in the beginning stages of forging. Many women forge (think Audra Draper) with no problem, she is however quite fit. On the heavy end most smiths seldom go over 5 or 6 lbs. for a hammer. Don Fogg starts his forging with such a hammer and he isn't a big guy either. It's all technique rather than brute force.
 
I believe that in the old days the Smiths were larger than life in myth but in real life they were just phisicaly fit as they had to know how to man handle a hoarse or wagon wheel,but of course they had apprentices to help also.Now days to forge knives the tongs are liteweight and the blades are not heavey.You can make any knife you want with nothing more than a 3 pound hammer from start to finish.So you don't have to be a big person to forge.Now you may get tired faster at first,but like any other kind of physical activity you have to work into it a little slower as you build up your strength and stamina for the task.So just start forging and you will have no problems being able to handle it muscle wise.
Good Luck and have fun,
Bruce
 
Or you can build a forging press like I did. My physical frame was always on the puny side. I still tune the blade with a small hammer and anvil after moving huge amounts with the press. I still think the Smiths of old would have loved it at my shop.

Click on my fancy new banner to see my press.
 
http://blacksmithchic.com/ - Check it out - a woman smith who does some very fine work.

It's also a misconception that all of the old time smiths worked with out power tools. Many set up shop near a water source so they could use water powered tools. Lots of books will show you pictures of old shops set up just this way. Setting up a waterwheel isn't all that hard and being efficient was even more important back then. Also the average size male during the 18th and 19th century was around 5'6" tall and 140 pounds! Not exactly massive.
 
Chuck, I agree with everything you've said there, and ther'es lots of good information about this very subject in a blacksmithing book that was discussed a few weeks ago.

But I'm not a small guy(5'5" and 165 if I got rid of gut, so still, a good amountof muscle), but that lovely lady's arms are bigger than mine. So I don't think that quite answers the part of question about smaller guys. :D
 
Yes she does have one heck of a bicep - but in a way it does help to show that time and the proper training will help you develop the necessary musculature. I'm sure she didn't start out looking that way.
An interesting note: Skeletal remains of old English archers who started their training very young show definite signs of over development of not only the musculature but the bone structure as well of their drawing arm.
 
Blacksmiths come in all sizes,,,but let us remember,,,dragging around coal, iron, anvils, and stuff is not the same as pushing a pen across some paper,,,,the nature of the job in history is that of a hard job....

Like farming, like working on the railroad,,the job was a very hard job to do.

I do remember a movie starring the actor who was also playing Hoss Cartwright. He played the western Blacksmith in the movie and was a Huge mountain of a man,,,Such casting fit and most likely has helped perpetuate the myth of the blacksmith with the biggest arms in the village.
 
You can power a hammer with water etc. and that was certainly used for big stuff. But very important is that they knew how to use their energy. Every blow had a reason, no energy was wasted and they used the right tools. remember STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT.
 
Bladesmiths are one thing, a blacksmith is another. Its not just a look at the hammering but the constant lifting of heavy iron parts, maneuvering them into place, etc. When you spend all day in the smithy workign every manner of end tool or part, you must be physically fit, its a way of life and blacksmithing will make you that way. If you just forge 'blades' exclusively, your load isn't so broad and neither is the work out. So, I feel its not so much a myth as some feel, but rather a closer examination of the hammered product. You don't have to be a hulk for either trade, but being fit helps for sure. Being small has little to do with capability, just looks at Japanese swordsmiths.

I would recommend weight lifting to smiths, its a great way to increase your productivity and efficiency. I prefer to lift/exercise 4 days a week.

Just my .02.

Jason
 
I agree Jason, I've known 2 men that have done nothing but blacksmithing all their lives and they are very muscular, and hugh men. Blacksmithing and Bladesmithing is quite different and a true blacksmith works as you say with all types of repairs. Try working on plowpoints and other large heavy objects day in and day out, and you'll soon become a source to be reckoned with if someone ticks you off.
A bladesmith on the other hand, I find to be more into the art of shapeing small pieces of steel and then, heat treating it in ways so that it will perform very well for just the purpose of cutting. I take nothing away from the blacksmiths ability to make great cutting tools also, but the blacksmiths I know don't get into the art of high performance knives. They can take steel and with a hammer turn it into things that are almost unimagineable.But their heat treating consists of a water plunge and thats it. I wish I had more of their skills, to shape and move steel.

As for forging knives and hawks, I rarely use a hammer heavier then 3# anymore and most of the time for shapeing the tips and bevels I mostly use a 1# ballpeen. It gives better control and will easily move steel when you hit it in the right places.

Bill
 
I hate to put it this way, but the size of the dude has more to do with genetics than occupation.


While it's true that you can gain muscles and strength with labor jobs, it doesn't make you a "big man".

I'm 6' even, 245 lbs. and can count on one hand the number of weeks I have actively "worked out" at the gym. I have never had a labor job and was not involved in sports in H.S. Instead, I've had desk jobs and a low-exercise "nerdy" lifestyle.

On paper, I ought to look like a belly hangin, butt-laggin, lazy man.

Instead, I'm just "proportionally large". Bruce Bump knows what I look like. ;)

And yet, just for kicks, last Wednesday I lifted my wife up over my head. Again, ask Bruce what she looks like - lady's got bonified biceps. :eek:

In my case, I cannot take credit for my size because it's exactly what my parents gave me. Big legs, long arms and heavy bones.

Interestingly, a younger brother who is looks like a near-twin went the opposite route and hit the weights hard for 4-5 years. We look exactly the same in stature (except I'm just a tinsy bit taller...:D). And he's stronger.


I honestly believe that the size in the muscle comes from explosive resistance training, and that the strength comes from extended, endurance training.

The only way a blacksmith would be able to guarantee that he "got bigger" would be to continually lift heavier tools, move heavier and heavier items, etc. until he maxed out his body's capability.


It's a quaint romantic notion to think of an oversized blacksmith, devoted to his labors, large and thick as an ox, bending steel like it was willow branches.

$0.02
 
BTW, I should add - I spent way too much time Saturday looking for some smithing tongs...

Anybody have a source over the internet (that won't empty my tool fund)?

Thanks!

Dan
 
I'm same way Dan, my parents are both big(esp. my dad) and so am I. Haven't lifted for years(Which is why I failed weight lifting twice in school cuz I never go. :D )

But yeha,f or bulk you go with continualy trying to lift a max weight, and not relaly worrying about reps. Toning the muscle and getting endurance you do reps at lower weights. So if anything bladesmithing would tone, blacksmithing though would help you get big.

And I've jsut repeated whate veryone here already said. I'm gonna go back to reading and looking at the pictures. ;)
 
Bruce, you don't look like any puny runt, unless your family is REALLY BIG! You are just smart, finding an easier way to move that hot steel. And you do it fine, too.
 
Size is nothing I am 6'2" I met a maker when I was about 35 he was 74years old. He did all/ most of his work with files. He is a slight frame and about 5'5"

I went around to his house with the intention of being his stricker.
You know help the old guy out. We were using a combination of a 10lb and a 6 lb sledge hammer. As we worked on different sections of the damascus billet.

He was waking 2 to my one like a machine. He looked like a skinny old man. He is now 83 and cancer treatment has slowed him down but he still likes to fire up.

Have a go. A lot of light work repeated often enough will build your strength and stamina. A light hamer is good I use a 2 lb.
 
I have to agree with pendentive.I am 5'6 232, 28 inch legs 21 inch neck and 18 inch arms. 450 bench,600 lbs squat,but I have been lifting weight for 15 years but
I had the genes for muscle,my father is only 5'4 but big boned
I do short hard heavy workouts,I look like a pit bull.
a man who throughs a hammer day after day would only get so big
because his muscle would be over worked,that is were the genetics
comes in.If I was not a dyed in wood stock removal man,I may had tried my hand at throwing around some heavy hammers:D
 
My two cents for what it is worth. I think it is more a question of want to than how big or muscular you are. I have seen a fifteen year old that probably weighed 150 soaking wet use a hammer like nothing else. Joel knows I am a big guy, but not overly muscular but now that I am used to it, I just think of forging as a good workout. I think it is more about learning control and building skill than muscles. Just my thoughts
 
I probably would not have enough skill to swing a hammer
and make a knife no matter how strong I am.I would have alot of busted fingers:D
 
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