Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 26
“The alchemy of
heating metal
to the correct temperature,
then bending it to your will
is incredible”
Greg finds little need for the mod cons today’s
blacksmiths use, preferring, when possible, traditional
joining techniques like mortise and tenon, rather than
welding. “There’s real satisfaction in going right back
to 18th-century techniques – not only because they’re
more challenging, but because they’re visually more
powerful than something with just a blob of weld on
it. A smith from 150 years ago could walk into my
forge and start working straight away. The only thing
that’s changed is the electric lighting,” he says.
Without the slightest clue as to which century
we’re in, let alone decade, the forge could pass as a
museum, but it’s very much a working smithy. Rows
of vintage farm, farrier and tinsmithing tools, left by
a 200-year-long roll call of blacksmiths, are hooked
along blackened oak rafters, while the back wall is
lined with tools of the trade: nail-shaped punches
for piercing holes in metal, scrolled jigs for shaping
decorative work, and wrenches for twisting and
contorting. In Victorian times, a smith’s arsenal
included tools for shoeing horses, making knives,
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fixing cart wheels and even pulling out teeth – human
and horse. Only when a tool is very rusty does Greg
throw it out. “Being Dartmoor, the mist blows in and
out of here all the time, so if things aren’t handled
regularly and greased, they rust and become useless,”
he says. In winter, there are just two temperatures
in the forge: skin-scorchingly hot by the fire, and
see-your-breath cold everywhere else.
The extremes of temperature coupled with the dim
light make the smithy a forbidding place to work,
but Greg requires darkness to see the exact colour
and temperature of the iron as he works on it. Bright
red, around 900°C, is perfect for intricate jobs where
he needs to see the edges of the piece he is working,
while ‘lemon white’ – a blinding 1,300°C degrees – is
ideal for welding. “The alchemy of heating iron to the
correct temperature, then bending it to your will is
incredible,” he says, making a new cup of coffee. “I still
love it after all these years and intend to keep doing it
until my body decides otherwise.”
The Blacksmith • Greg Abel
