S-Pot Hook
| People (again
in New England) with restored Colonial fireplaces in their homes like these to hang on
fireplace cranes. Note the "rat tail" whorl at the ends: the sign of the
craftsman smith: machine hardware today does not ordinarily have these embellishments. See
also my comments under "Leaves" here. Blacksmiths like to "sign" their
work. Curlicues, and rat-tail whorls, and leaves, and little faces and gnomes peering out
of unexpected places on tool handles and utensils all bespeak the "craft" and
skill of an individual. Lockplates and door catches are favorites too, and often they are
decorated (were decorated) with rows of puntate dots or cross hatchings done by hot punch
and hotset. Many old tools have the smith's name or initials on them and often the date:
people years ago "dated" their possessions and things more than we do. Religious
symbols were common too: the Christian cross, the crescent and full moon and stars being
favored additions, often seen on guns. |
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On some of my
nicer pieces, I used to "swat" them with a weeping heart punch I had hand-filed
from old bar stock. Then I would fill the dimple thus created with a gob of melted brazing
rod (brass), and when it cooled, I would hand-file it down flush to the surface, thus
creating a brass "inset" - a golden brass heart motif in my object: at once both
decoration and my own smithy i.d.
For items that will actually be in the fire and soot - like
pothooks - there is not much more finishing that pays off here. But for a nice ladle say,
or reproduction oldtime meatfork (two tine for big roast), the smith would often hand-file
away all the heat scale and dirt left from forging to reveal the silvery beauty of
polished iron. This is called "Whitesmithing" and Whitesmiths were important
early craftsmen, too. They often combined tin work with their activities too (tinsmithing)
and copper also (weathervanes, etc.) - as their's was a somewhat "cleaner"
operation than blacksmithing proper. |
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