Last school year, one of Daniel’s school projects was to design and build a blacksmith shop on a trailer. He first made a detailed scaled drawing and then built the building on an old International pickup bed trailer. Myron helped some with the framing, but Daniel did most of the work himself and paid for all the materials. This summer he got it completed.

The blacksmith shop. The wood sign over the door reads: “The Village Smithy”

Inside the blacksmith shop, work benches line the sides with storage space for tools on a shelf underneath. The forge sits in a bump out over the trailer tongue area. The forge was custom made from an old cast iron sink. The collector for the chimney was made from an old propane tank. The shop is wired for electricity and the lights are on a dimmer switch. There are times blacksmiths do not want too much light so that they can correctly judge the color of the red hot metal. The project required creativity and thinking through how to make everything work. It was an great learning experience for him.