Thanks to the huge popularity of the television show, “Forged in Fire”, blacksmithing and bladesmithing are undergoing a huge swell of interest. Still, I wonder how many of these would-be smiths appreciate the deep history of their craft? Since our Ancestors first discovered the ability to smelt and forge iron, roughly 3400 years ago, the blacksmiths who possessed the knowledge and skill to convert stony ore to tools and weapons were thought to possess magic. In many cultures, the smith is regarded as a specialized type of shaman or magician, a master of an arcane process and specialized skills unknown by the general populace. Within the cultures which hold smiths in such regard, the smithy or workshop of such individuals is held as hallowed or particularly sacred, a place of transformation, and is generally viewed as a shrine to Fire.
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