KIM BURTON-SCHRAM
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER
The ninth annual, two-day Smith-In recently took place at the Dunvegan Pioneer Museum, the perfect setting to step back in time and watch the metalworkers craft and shape metal. Skilled blacksmiths demonstrated traditional gunsmithing methods for forging metal into a long rifle and Boyd Page offered a workshop on transforming a metal rod into a pair of working scissors.
The forge fire roared and the metal rang out as it was hammered in the blacksmith shop at the Dunvegan Pioneer Museum. The Hamelin Blacksmith Shop was originally built in the early 1800s west of Apple Hill, then later, the building was moved into the village around 1911. Olivier Hamelin served as farrier to shoe horses until the 1970s, but the shop continued to operate until 1984 with Olivier repairing metal, making tools and crafting metal replacement parts for factory-made farm machinery. Hamelin’s Blacksmith Shop was the last full-service blacksmith in Glengarry. The building was donated by his sister to the Pioneer Museum in 2000, when it was dismantled, moved from Apple Hill and rebuilt in Dunvegan.
The demonstration of roll forging a long rifle was according to the 1750s era, before the gun drill had been created. With three skilled blacksmiths creating the rifle, attendees could see the detail and time required to build each piece, with a finished rifle taking close to one month to complete.
Lloyd Johnston heated the metal to be rolled into the rifle barrel, with Hughes Baribeau hand cranking the fan to continually feed air to the charcoal fire. Lloyd fed the fire with borax to help forge the welding, creating a clean surface for the metal to fuse. When the metal was hot enough, six blows per hammer would be used to shape the barrel and close the metal, leaving no visible weld line. Ivan Savchev held the mandrel while the hot metal was hammered and molded around it to make the hole for the rifle barrel deep enough to then allow a spiral groove to be reamed by hand into the barrel. Sparks flew and the glow of the red-hot metal was reflected in the faces of the blacksmiths as they worked.
Meanwhile, Boyd Page held a workshop on traditional scissor making. Blacksmiths from Ontario and Quebec brought their own anvils and forges to perfect their skills in making reproduction Sheffield textile scissors for cloth. Participants in the workshop were given a rod of metal that had to be heated & shaped, sharped, drilled to put together, then tightened for the best cut. Justine Southam, a part-time artistic blacksmith from the Eastern Townships in Quebec, was carefully comparing the two parts of her scissors to ensure each piece matched the other.
Mike Armstrong and Megan Carter, from Armstrong & Carter Ironworks in Delta, Ontario, are full-time blacksmiths creating custom reproduction hardware, restoring metalworks and participating in historical demonstrations and workshops. With the intention of appealing to a higher end clientele, Mike had polished his reproduction scissors to a bright shine, making them look as though they were factory made.
The ninth annual Smith-In offered traditional blacksmith demonstrations and workshops. With vendors on the first day of the event, attendees enjoyed opportunity to see, first-hand, the detail, skill and focus that went into making household utensils & tools along with weapons for home defense, hunting and military duty.
