Oak Level Forge is a lean-to clinging to the side of a log cabin which, in turn, is clinging to the side of a hill.  It overlooks a wooded holler with a creek running through it.  My shop is not very large, but it does not need to be.  Most work has to be done within a few steps of the coal fire or the iron begins to cool and we all know we must strike while the iron is hot.  Most of the tools I use date to around the turn of the nineteenth century; however, I pick the best tool for the job at hand whether it was made in 1780 or 2006. 

The Forge Itself	As an example, to provide the blast of air needed to bring the coal fire up to the proper forging temperature, I have a set of Great Bellows from around 1870, a hand cranked blower from around 1900 and a “modern” electric blower from 1913.  I use the hand cranked blower, because it provides the most delicate control and conserves the most coal.  Any good blacksmith of yore would have used the best tool at his disposal, not simply the easiest to use.  Nor would he have chosen a tool out of nostalgia alone.

Tools of the Trade	Brace of Anvils
The anvil is perhaps the best known tool of the blacksmith.  Its shape has evolved over literally thousands of years and has become the very symbol of the blacksmith.  The anvils in my shop range in weight from ten pounds to four hundred sixty pounds and in date of manufacture from 1780 to 1903.

I have recently added on to enclose an eight foot tall power hammer nick-named “Thumper.” He weighs in at a mere five thousand pounds. Thumper dates to the nineteen thirty’s and was designed to take the place of a team of strikers swinging sledge hammers…..one hundred-twenty five pound hammers at that! It allows me to rough out large pieces and “save my arm” for the detail work. It can also strike faster than I can…..One hundred and fifty strikes per minute! This is important in the production of pattern welded Damascus as fewer heats mean an increase in the quality of the finished product.   

Though I would be more than happy to rattle on all day about the particulars of each and every tool in the smithy, instead I would ask you to gaze at these photos, to appreciate that even though these tools were designed with nothing but pure functionality in mind, their forms evolved into pure sculptural art, with patinas gained from years of use that I only wish I could replicate in my own work.