What do you mean while the iron is hot?

Strike while the iron is hot is to exercise red-hot steel and make utensils.

Ironing is a primitive forging process, which prevailed in rural areas before 1980s. Although this process is primitive, it is very practical; Although it seems simple, it is not easy to learn. The blacksmith buried the cut iron in the burning charcoal pile and burned the iron red.

When forging, the master puts a fiery red iron block on the anvil in his left hand and raises a small hammer in his right hand for forging; The apprentice standing opposite, under the command of the master's hammer, raised the sledgehammer for hammering and forging. Beat until the iron turns from red to black, then put it back into the furnace to burn red, and so on, and finally forge iron tools with different sizes and bends, such as hoes and knives.

Burning red after molding, soaking in a pool for cooling, or burying in slag ash for natural cooling, and finally sharpening with a grindstone. Although the ironing process is simple, the difficulty lies in mastering different materials, duration and quenching time. Blacksmiths can't make a living without excellent quenching technology.

Strike while the iron is hot:

The blacksmith's shop is also called the blacksmith's furnace. The so-called "shop" is just a broken house. There is a big stove in the middle of the house, and there is a bellows beside the stove. As soon as the bellows is pulled, the wind enters the furnace, and the flame in the furnace soars into the sky. The iron to be forged is first red-hot in the furnace, and then moved to the big iron pier. The master holds the main hammer and the sledgehammer for forging.

Experienced hands-on, with a small hammer in his right hand and iron tongs in his left. In the process of forging, manual work should constantly turn the iron material through visual inspection, so that the square iron block becomes a round iron bar or the thick iron bar becomes a slender iron bar. It can be said that in the hands of the old blacksmith, the hard iron can be square, round, long, flat and pointed.

Iron products include farm tools, such as plows, rakes, hoes, picks and sickles, as well as some daily necessities, such as kitchen knives, shovels, planers and scissors, as well as knockers, foam nails and door bolts.