Before considering the use of blacksmithing trade manuals as analogies for
pre-1860s smithing behavior, keep in mind that the vast majority of the
"how-to" manuals were created after mass introduction of special alloy steels.
After reviewing many of these publications, I believe that most were written to
help smiths with the numerous problems they were encountering while undertaking
repairs of tools and hardware made with new steels.
Prior to the 1860s, blacksmiths were working almost entirely with tools and
hardware fabricated from carbon steels. After the invention of the Bessemer
process, special alloy steels became readily available, and manufacturers began
employing "improved" steels for special purpose tools. Who told the
blacksmiths these new steels were now being used? No one! And how were smiths
to recognize special-alloy tools when they were brought in for repair? They
couldn't! Thus, when a special alloy tool required repair, smiths employed
their well-known techniques for carbon steels, and invariably, many repairs
were failures. Just read the plethora of new recipes for repairing various
tools in the 1880s smithing manuals. It seems every smith had a new technique
they devised for repairing a specific article. But just when one smith figured
out a successful technique for repairing axes, unbeknownst to them, a new steel
appeared. Tool makers did not adopt a new special-alloy steel in 1870 only to
ignore a "new and better" steel presented to them in 1872. They kept
experimenting and using different steels. Who told the blacksmiths?
Many historians have noted the decline of blacksmithing during the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. Arguments have been made that smiths became vehicle
mechanics, due in part to the mass production of commodities (making new
products less expensive than repairing damaged commodities) and to the rise of
mass-produced vehicles. I wonder? What about the outdated skills smiths used
to repair special-alloy ware using a carbon-based technology? I have been
looking for years for a good archaeological site of a late 19th- to early
20th-century blacksmith shop, hoping to be able to test the above inference. I
predict that discarded repairs and surviving technological debris at such a
shop will indicate that carbon-based techniques were applied to special-alloy
tools leading to the failures. If true, then the lack of sufficient new
smithing skills to match the new alloy steel market may have been a powerful
incentive for customers of "bad" smiths to seek other alternatives (e.g.,
buying new tools and equipment rather than trying to locate a "good" blacksmith
to repair damaged goods).
Thus, do not rely on post-1860s blacksmithing publications if you are
investigating carbon-based steel archaeological sites. Obviously, the
1860s-1870s publications will reflect more of the older technology. One of the
major purposes of these publications, however, was to train blacksmiths in the
use of proper techniques, presumably in response to a perceived "decline" in
the skills of blacksmiths. Even the earlier "how to" manuals addressed "poor"
techniques (i.e., substituting "better" techniques for inferior techniques,
possibly in direct response to the new and "unknown" changes in steels).
--
Lester A. Ross, Inc. <http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/larinc/index/index.htm>
See web pages for:
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
Russian American Company Fort Ross, 1821-1840: Beaded Apparel Project
<http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/ftross/index.htm>
Hudson's Bay Company Columbia Department, 1821-1860: Material Culture
Project <http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/fova/index/index.htm>
American Fur Company Fort Union, 1828-1867: Trade Bead Research (to be
online later in 1999)
Beads and Beaded Apparel of the Northern Plains, Pre-Reservation Era Project
(to be online later in 1999)
ONLINE RESEARCH ARTICLES FOR REVIEW
"Agricultural Land Acquisition and Settlement Patterns in the Far West"
<http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/ahapn/research/homestead/ross.htm>
"Spatial Modeling of Functional Areas for Rural Industrial and Agricultural
Sites" <http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/workcamp/index/index.htm>
"Buried Archaeosediments, San Bernardino County, California"
<http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/geoarch/index/index.htm>
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY SUPPORT
Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) - Material Culture Publication
Series <http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/sha/index/index.htm>
Association of Historical Archaeologists of the Pacific Northwest (AHAPN)
<http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/ahapn/index/index.htm>
Society of Bead Researchers (SBR)
<http://www.spiretech.com/~lester/sbr/index/index.htm>
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