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Comment by karaterobot | Hacker News Reader

Well yeah, that's why blacksmithing would die out. Nobody needs handmade horseshoes and nails. The premise of the article is that it's coming back, so I'm wondering if people are buying horseshoes and nails now, or whether the article is just redefining the term blacksmithing so that it can call a metal artist a blacksmith.

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Historically, blacksmiths of one sort or another were involved in making almost every tool prior to the industrial revolution.

My totally unreserved guess is that there are not very many on a per capita basis, but there are probably about 10-50 working smith's per state. They do architectural work, historical pieces, education, sculpture, and all sorts of other stuff, if you include farriers (who deal with shoeing horses, but it's really a more technical trade that deals with horses gaits and health).

Etymologically I would say it fits. "Smith" means a metalworker, note the relation to smite, which one does a lot in blacksmithing, and "black" refers to the black oxide forge scale the results from repeated heating of the iron and steel (vs other metal workers, e.g. silversmith or goldsmith).

So give they are using more or less the same methods of a blacksmith of yore and the etymology works, they would seem to be a blacksmith to me.

Surnames via profession

Black ~> iron smith, Green ~> copper smith, White ~> silver smith

You’ll probably be surprised to find out there is _still_ a market for hand-forged nails. It’s not a large market, but as I understand it they behave differently in wood, due to their square profile. I think some of it is chasing authenticity, but also functional differences, which usually aren’t worth the price premium.

Ref: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2015/07/30/forged-forged-nails...

I don't see anything in your link about them behaving differently in wood compared to the machine-made nails in the same post?

I don't know about the article, but I remember being told by a blacksmith that blacksmiths' nails are much rougher than machine-made ones, so they have much more friction and can't be removed without destroying whatever they're stuck in.

Yes, but there are industrial "high adherence" nails, such as annular nails (common in roofing) and cut clasps (sometimes used in flooring), examples:

https://www.bradfords.co.uk/ironmongery-fixings-adhesives/na...

https://www.heritage-store.co.uk/traditional-nails/2043-cut-...

very likely the hand-made ones are for restoration projects where you need to be as faithful to the original as possible.

> due to their square profile

or, more commonly in timber framing, rectangular profile.

Hammered in thin dimension between the grain, long dimension with the grain, maximising wood|metal surface area, minimising splitting|cracking forces.

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