Smiths would not usually have engaged in casting. At least not casting
iron. For one they used the wrong kind of iron (low carbon maleable
iron with a high melting tempreature). This is the kind of iron you
would want to make things from hammer forging, most of what a smith
habitually produced. Casting is usually done with high carbon iron,
which has a much lower melting temperature. In fact it would have been
pretty hard, if not impossible, to melt low carbon iron with the kind
of hearth in a smithy. Also the skill set was different. Making molds
and using them is a lot different than welding and hammer forging. Most
blast furnaces or foundries hired people who specialized in casting and
often outsourced the production of the wooden patterns. I'm talking
about the period up through the middle 1800s.

James Brothers

On Nov 6, 2004, at 3:11 PM, Iain Stuart wrote:

> I have read somewhere, possibly in a book on railways, that
> blacksmiths often had earth floors to contain spills of coals and
> metals. They may have also been used for casting items, you dig a hole
> make the mould in casting sand and once done fill the hole.
>
> I am tempted to ask whether anyone has found a dead cat underneath a
> blacksmiths floor....
>
> Iain Stuart
>
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