I wonder how well the weight of iron bought would relate to the type of actual
work invested in any given pound of iron. A wagon tire would have less work per
pound than a comparable weight of kitchen or hearth impliments. Work in the
sense of transforming iron into objects may have less bearing on the pound of
iron as a guide to production per year than it does on what was pounded from the
iron hourly or daily.
George Dixon

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter King <peter@...>
Sent: Jul 1, 2005 6:42 PM
To: realwroughtiron group <realwroughtiron@...>
Subject: [realwroughtiron] blacksmith's work

I have been looking at the accounts of an 18th century ironworks recently
and in particular at those who were buying bar iron. It occurs to me to ask
how much a blacksmith, using decent bar iron would be able to forge into
useful artefacts (such as hinges or horseshoes) in a year. I see little
reason why this should have changed between the 18th century and now. I am
talking about manual blacksmith’s work without the aid of a trip hammer, or
any other device relying on power from a water wheel, steam engine or the
like. However the iron would be available in bars of various sizes down to
one inch by half or three-quarters of an inch square.

I fully appreciate that part of the work of a typical village blacksmith
would be shoeing horses, which would mean that he would not be working iron
all the time. There are people listed in the accounts who were buying half
a ton, one ton or 1.5 tons per year, but have no addresses or occupations at
present. Is this the sort of amount that a smith would use in a year? There
were also people who were buying considerably greater quantities, and they
must be ironmongers or master smiths with a number of employees.

Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
Telephone 01562-720368