Okay guys, for writing/general reference, a bit about what a ‘blacksmith’ is and isn’t:
A blacksmith is a generalist, a person who uses tools and fire to work iron. Some blacksmiths work more specifically, so you get, say, an architectural blacksmith, who focuses more or less exclusively on things like gates, rails, fences, or an artist blacksmith, who makes wacky sculptures or what have you. These days, though, that’s a pretty blurry line. ‘Blacksmith’ is a pretty damn broad term, but it’s nowhere near broad enough to cover everything encompassed in ‘metalworker’, which is how I often see it used. There are a LOT of different skills for working metal, and no one knows them all. Some other terms:
A farrier shoes horses. They may make the shoes, or they may buy them and then size them, but they actually do the shoeing. Unless the blacksmith is also a farrier, they don’t know shit about horses’ hooves and are not qualified to deal with them and probably don’t want to.
A blacksmith works IRON, usually almost exclusively. They might work with bronze or do a bit of brazing, but those are really separate skillsets. If you work, say, tin and/or pewter, you are in fact a whitesmith. You could also be a silversmith or a coppersmith, and so on.
Knifemakers and swordsmiths have their own highly specialized and fairly complex specialties, and usually a blacksmith wouldn’t mess with that unless they want to pick up a new skillset or if they’re really the only game going for a long way around. By the same token, a swordsmith might never have learned the more general blacksmithing skills. They’re not the same thing is what I’m trying to say here. Likewise armorers. There’s overlap but it’s not the same thing.
If you make metal items via molds and casting, you work at a foundry and are a foundryman.
Look, when metalworkers and individual shops and masters were the height of industry, this shit got REALLY specific. There were people who spent their whole lives making pins. Just pins. Foundries specialized and made only bells, only cannon, only cauldrons, etc. This is scratching the surface, I just wanted to make the point that ‘blacksmith’ is not the same thing as ‘magical muscly person who knows how to do everything related to metal’.
This sort of thing really illustrates the huge difference between writing fantasy and writing historical fiction, I think. In real European medieval history, a smith might live, perhaps to the age of 50* - if he’s very lucky 60 or so. And he (sometimes she, but mostly he) has to be earning money throughout his life, so probably doesn’t have time to develop a whole set of skillsets, so if you write him being able to do loads of different things and having the right tools for all of them, it looks odd. And if you write a woman, you probably do feel you need to give a bit of explanation about why she’s doing the job, since it’s a pretty sexist society on the whole, so she’s a little unusual.
In fantasy, though, it’s all different. Tolkien’s dwarves have an average lifespan of 250, so they have much longer to pick up skills (and live in an environment where probably it’s much easier and encouraged for them to do so: they live in cities that are concentrated on providing made items and skills to other species: they aren’t a generalist society, very unlike any human institution I can think of.) They also ‘make mighty spells’ so very unlike real medieval blacksmiths, they are probably working metal with enchantment as well as tongs.
We don’t know about their gender role situation, but I don’t think there’s anything in canon to say that the women aren’t making things (and even if there was, there are loads of dwarf cities that last for thousands of years, so no doubt there’s variation between them).
Tolkien’s Elves of course live forever and also have more-or-less perfect memory, so there’s no reason for an Elven smith not to have all these skills and others, particularly if they are nobility (I don’t think in real-world history you get many noble smiths) and have other people helping to make sure they eat and have clothes and so on. And it seems less of an issue being female, too: Galadriel and Arwen are notable makers of magical items. *I’m assuming that if he’s a smith, he survived the terrifying childhood mortality rates, and we only have to think of adult lifespans.
I love to talk about historic blacksmithing! My husband and I run a blacksmithing shop (specialized in blade making) and we’ve done a LOT of educational demonstrations where we forge while lecturing on history, culture, techniques, etc. (So feel free to ask me things! I get all excited about it!)
Let’s talk first about the name! Historically Smith would mean metal worker and the color would tell you what type of metal. Black is the designation for iron (because of the color it takes after being heated and cooled several times.) Today Smith more generally means maker, but is still most commonly applied to metal workers.
And, as the OP said, if you need a tinker (tinsmith, also works pewter), silversmith (whitesmith), goldsmith (white- or yellow- smith), or coppersmith (red-, brown-, or green- smith), that’s a different discipline. Not that a blacksmith has no idea how to work those metals, but his knowledge will likely be limited to how it applies to his general discipline. For example, weapons and armor made for nobility might have precious metals used to decorate them. (Aside: The techniques for iron vs copper are complete opposites and one of my favorite modern blacksmithing proverbs is about brass, an alloy made with copper and zinc. It runs, “Brass, brass, what a pain in the… brain.” )
One of my choice historical bits is talking about medieval blacksmithing in England. This is something we actually have records of because of the guild structure. There were so many blacksmiths in urbanized areas that your permit to open a shop would permit you to make only a specific set of items. Pin drawers, chain makers, armorers, swordsmiths, farm tools, nails, wainwright (hoops for wagon wheels or barrels), farriers (horse shoeing)… all of those might be different shops. And that isn’t even a complete list! (Naturally there was a lot of overlap on high-demand items.)
But even better, Yorkshire records that show us that women were regularly involved in the trade! It was still male-dominated BUT several of the disciplines (nails, pins, chains) were almost exclusively women! Women owned blacksmith shops, took apprentices, worked the forge - all of the things that mark them as “real” blacksmiths. One of my favorite anecdotes is from William Hutton’s History of Birmingham; he encountered a nailer’s shop in which he noted “one or more females, stripped of their upper garments, and not overcharged with the lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex.”
Come yell at me about blacksmithing! I want to learn what you know and I’d love to answer any of your questions! I have a lot of prepared lecture snippets on a variety of smithing details:
Technological setbacks due to loss of historic metallurgical discoveries.
Why “damascus” swords are supposed to be the best.
Cultural and historical reasons for large, slow, strokes with a heavy hammer (like you see in video games) vs. small, quick strokes with a smaller hammer (like you see on YouTube).
Blacksmithing terms in modern English. (”Keep your temper” being the most common.)
How settling America changed the Western picture to males-only generalized blacksmithing
Economic comparisons of the cost to hire a blacksmith
Apprentice vs. Journeyman vs. Master
More about female blacksmiths
What to wear in the forge (modern or historical reenactment)
How-to on a variety of subjects
Blacksmithing in movies
Why Forged in Fire doesn’t give you an accurate picture of blacksmithing or the skills of the contestants
Metallurgy (the science of metals)
Eastern vs. Western blacksmithing (Surprise! Japan and Europe are wildly different!)
What kitchen knives do you need? And how do you keep them sharp?
Did I mention I love to talk about it and get real excited?
