SMITHERY
Blacksmithing is the work, art or trade of a blacksmith dealing with wrought iron. Its chemical designation is Fe (ferrum) and it can be melted at over 1500 degrees centigrade.
Rough iron comes from iron ore by blasting it in smelting furnaces, using coke or in smaller furnaces charcoal. Iron was introduced in the second and first millennium BC, immediately after the copper and bronze ages. It is well known because of the finds of cold weapons, spears, swords and knives. Iron today is used mostly as steel, with controlled carbon and is very useful, but the surface needs after treatment because of strong corrosion. Steel elements are very suitable for grandiose constructions, but are dangerous because of its relatively low threshold of inflammability.
Rough iron is a heavy material and can be forged by a hammer when it is hot and relatively soft. It is hard when cold and can be used as rods in plane or in spiral shapes.
Nails are the simplest element of wrought iron, used for connecting two constructional elements, mostly in wood. A tack has a bigger head and longitudinal, slightly conical body with a point. It works after the construction’s deformation. This is the same as with a wooden pin, but it needs to be open on both sides, because of receiving moisture from the air. Nails are visible at their heads, but the connection is closed. Today we use industrially made steel nails with the same profile throughout the length.
Window grill bars (historical 'grille' in British Museum) are a very important element of vernacular architecture for protecting the entrance into a house through windows. A vernacular house is mostly a single storey building and the windows are easily reachable. Grill bars secure the contents in the house, also young girls against boys – before marriage. This was historically more important than today. Grill bars can be a very simple cross, which reduces the opening surface, but is open to the air and sunlight. Wrought grills can be all wrought or connected with pins and are a very important thing in the homestead. Vernacular architecture doesn't know decoration, but is decorated (Juvanec 2009): window grill bars are in first place a practical element, but their importance is presented in their design – simple crosses, ornament or more pretentious shapes in the construction. Technically they are in-built into the construction of the walls – for more security. Some solutions can be found as an outside element in front of the window and very rarely is an execution that allows opening the grills. This example is not very safe.
Window shutters, all in iron, are also mounted in front of the window opening, for physical safety and for protection against daylight, near to iron workshops also against noise: sledgehammers are not very silenced and the same applies to handwork at the anvils. Iron on iron can be very noisy. Window shutters are made of iron tablets, strengthened by iron strips with hinges on one side and simple shutters on the other. Iron shutters have to be painted because of corrosion.
The most important characteristic of a door is shutting, but the most practical elements are the hinges. They are hardly ever in another material than wrought iron. They have two parts: flat strips on the door and bearing parts on the frame, which allow the door fold to move. Iron elements are also used for the fortification of the wooden folds with massive tacks. Knockers can also be an important part of the door, but they are in use mostly in cities and villages, in remote homesteads they are rare.
The oldest locking device in the Alps is a wooden bar over the whole width of the door, attached on both sides to the stone walls. In Yemen can be found the oldest wooden locks with holes – like modern steel locks. The key for this lock was big and clumsy. The wrought iron keys in Slovene granaries are more practical. They are folded, but their length in a folded state is at least 20 cm. Normal locks are made of steel, though, while the oldest and the biggest are in wrought iron, except for springs, which have to be in elastic steel.
The stone arch is an important element of the construction in rural houses. In spite of massive stone walls, the horizontal forces can be too strong and the walls can stretch. Horizontal tie irons can be used in this case, which connect the two walls under the arch. The iron rod usually has a square profile of an inch (approximately 2.5 cm), sometimes it is spiral twisted in the middle, and some examples can be found with a small decoration in the centre. The tie rod can be stuck in the stones of a wall inside, but usually is fixed on the outer sides of the walls with a massive cross bolt, also up to one metre in length.
Metal covering was in use more or less in the last century, but mostly as a temporary covering and for industrial, including military sheds. More valuable architecture can be covered by copper, but it is rare because of the price. Another usable metal is lead, which is soft and easy to bend and is very suitable for uneven surfaces and can be found mostly on eastern religious architecture, on dome complexes with numerous connecting edges and it is very heavy.
Decoration starts with symmetrical compositions in window grills, where the main crosses protect against breaking into the house, but the connecting elements such as rivets and tacks can be designed more ornamentally. Unfinished diagonals can be bent and with sharp points also help to protect against the reach of hands. Dense grills are also good protection against the sun’s beams.
Decorative elements connected to the fire are also made in metal: candlesticks.
Another decoration in wrought iron is animal figures on the top of roofs: hens can be sat in clay on the end of ordinary houses, but metal cocks can mostly be seen on churches,
which are turned by the wind and show their direction.
Iron elements – tacks, grills, shutters can be found in locations near to lively iron craft, in Slovenia for instance in the Gorenjska region, even the typical wooden object 'kozolec' hayrack can be connected with iron tacks.
Tools: smelting or blast furnace for acquiring iron from the ore, smith-hammer and sledgehammer (the last also on a water drive), anvil, pliers and models for forging, bellows for the right temperature of fire (water driven). The results of smithery are tacks, wrought hand-tools, connecting elements and hinges, grill bars, iron shutters and knockers, candle sticks, decorative figures for demonstrating the wind’s direction etc.