Editing Blacksmith (section)

=== Industrial era ===
During the eighteenth century, agents for the [[Sheffield]] cutlery industry scoured the British country-side, offering new carriage springs for old. Springs must be made of hardened steel. At this time, the processes for making steel produced an extremely variable product—quality was not ensured at the initial point of sale. Springs that had survived cracking through hard use over the rough roads of the time, had proven to be of a better quality steel. Much of the fame of Sheffield cutlery (knives, shears, etc.) was due to the extreme lengths the companies took to ensure they used high-grade steel.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}

[[File:Blacksmith shop, railroad, Topeka.jpg|thumb|left|Blacksmiths at the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] shops in [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]], [[Kansas]], 1943]] During the first half of the nineteenth century, the US government included in their [[treaties]] with many [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes, that the US would employ blacksmiths and [[wikt:striker|strikers]] at [[United States Army|Army]] [[fort]]s, with the expressed purpose of providing Native Americans with iron tools and repair services.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}

During the early to mid-nineteenth century, both European armies<ref>An Aide-Memoire to the Military Sciences volume 1'' by Royal Engineers, British Service, 1845, Col. G.G. Lewis, senior editor</ref> as well as both the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. Federal]] and [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] armies employed blacksmiths to shoe horses and repair equipment such as wagons, horse tack, and artillery equipment.  These smiths primarily worked at a [[traveling forge]] that when combined with a [[Limbers and caissons (military)|limber]], comprised wagons specifically designed and constructed as blacksmith shops on wheels to carry the essential equipment necessary for their work.<ref># The Ordnance Manual For The Use Of The Officers Of The Confederate States Army, 1863 reprinted by Morningside Press 1995, {{ISBN|0-89029-033-4}}</ref><ref># The ordnance manual for the use of officers of the United States army, 1861, reprinted by Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, December 22, 2005, {{ISBN|1-4255-5971-9}}</ref><ref name=Civsmith>{{cite book |first=David |last=Einhorn |title=Civil War Blacksmithing |publisher=CreateSpace Publishers |year=2010 |isbn= 978-1456364816 }}</ref>
[[File:SLCBlacksmiths.jpg|thumb|High school blacksmith class, [[Salt Lake City, Utah]], 1915]]
[[Lathes]], patterned largely on their [[woodturning]] counterparts, had been used by some blacksmiths<ref name=bookOfTools>{{cite book|last=Strelinger|first=Chas. A.|title=A Book of Tools|year=1895|publisher=Chas. A. Strelinger & Company|location=Detroit, Michigan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ouAJAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} since the middle-ages. During the 1790s [[Henry Maudslay]] created the first [[screw-cutting lathe]], a watershed event that signaled the start of blacksmiths being replaced by [[machinist]]s in [[factories]] for the hardware needs of the populace.

[[Samuel Colt]] neither invented nor perfected [[interchangeable parts]], but his insistence (and other industrialists at this time) that his [[firearms]] be manufactured with this property, was another step towards the obsolescence of metal-working artisans and blacksmiths. (See also [[Eli Whitney]]).

As demand for their products declined, many more blacksmiths augmented their incomes by taking in work shoeing [[horse]]s. A shoer-of-horses was historically known as a [[farrier]] in English. With the introduction of [[automobile]]s, the number of blacksmiths continued to decrease, many former blacksmiths becoming the initial generation of automobile [[Mechanic]]s. The nadir of blacksmithing in the United States was reached during the 1960s, when most of the former blacksmiths had left the trade, and few if any new people were entering the trade. By this time, most of the working blacksmiths were those performing [[farrier]] work, so the term ''blacksmith'' was effectively co-opted by the farrier trade.

==== Neoclassicism era ====

In the final part of the 18th century, forged ironwork continued to decline due to the aforementioned industrial revolution, shapes of the elements in the designs of window grilles and other decorative functional items continued to contradict natural forms, surfaces begin to be covered in paint, cast iron elements are incorporated into the forged designs.

Main features of [[Neoclassicism]] ironwork (also referred to as [[Louis XVI style]] and [[Empire style]] ironwork) include smooth straight bars, decorative geometric elements, double or oval volutes and the usage of elements from [[Classical antiquity]] ([[Meander (art)]], wreaths etc.).

Typical for this kind of ironwork is that the ironwork is painted white with gold (gilded) elements.<ref name=UmeleckeKovar>{{cite book|last=Revay|first=Pavel A.|title=Umelecke Kovar|year=2010|publisher=GRADA|location=Prague, Czech Republic|isbn=9788024783277|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3sK-AgAAQBAJ}}</ref>