Blacksmith exhibit open in Lee

Randy Burns / The Item Janson Cox, S.C. Cotton Museum Executive Director, shows the double lunger bellows, an essential piece of equipment in any blacksmith shop in years past.

By RANDY BURNS
Item Staff Writer
rburns@theitem.com

BISHOPVILLE – The new blacksmith exhibit at the South Carolina Cotton Museum is a work in progress, said Executive Director Janson Cox.

Finally, after years of collecting items related to the art of blacksmithing, a new exhibit featuring a blacksmith shop is being constructed on site at the museum, he said.

While the exhibit is not expected to be completed until later this summer, it is open to the public.

"I want people to see the exhibit being built," Cox said. "Some museums keep the exhibits from the public until it is completed. We don't do that here."

The blacksmith shop needs some walls and bricks, but the primary components – double lunger bellows and forge - are on display.

The bellows was used to deliver pressurized air to the forge, which served to provide a strong and constant blast of air, thus fueling the forge or the container that holds the fire for blacksmithing.

Cox acquired the bellows at an auction in Bethune more than 10 years ago.

"This is an exhibit we've been wanting to do for some time, but we had to get a forge," Cox said.

And Cox has been searching for tools and accessories of the blacksmith trade such as tongs and hand tools.

After reading the museum newsletter, Bishopville's Gilbert Baker donated some blacksmith tongs he found at an auction.

Cox said blacksmithing was an important business for cotton farmers in the early days of the 20th century.

"A blacksmith was possibly the most important business in a small town during the horse and mule days of agriculture," he said.

The blacksmith shop was a gathering place, especially for boys, Cox said.

"It was a good place for men to loaf and carried a higher social status than the livery barn," he said. "The livery barn appealed to those hangers-on who liked a place to play cards or perhaps sneak a few drinks. But a blacksmith shop was a busy place. A man went there to get a job done, or perhaps visit with neighbors while the wife was exchanging her eggs for groceries. Mothers warned their sons to stay shy of the livery stable, but no such admonition was given concerning the blacksmith shop."

When the blacksmith had some free time, he would let visitors play with the forge.

"When the forge was not busy, boys could play in the fire," Cox said. "There was not much around that a boy could harm. A first lesson was making a sizzler. That was a simple task that the smith taught the boys. The blacksmith would take a piece of iron, put it into the fire until it was red hot, then plunge it into the wood tub of water. The water boils and sizzles until the iron is cool. Boys would do this all day."

There was also fun to be had in the blacksmith shop when the forge was busy.

"It was more fun to pound the hot iron on the anvil, to make the anvil ring and the sparks fly," Cox said. "A boy could spend a whole Saturday in the shop. It was nice to sit on a nail keg and listen to men talk while you sharpened your knife."

Cox said the blacksmith exhibit will play an important role at the museum.

"The era of the blacksmith shop is over," he said. "The tools of the blacksmith and other paraphernalia are relegated to museums. We hope that visitors of today can look at this exhibit and imagine how much fun they are missing by belonging to an age that calls these things relics."

Contact Staff Writer Randy Burns at rburns@theitem.com or (803) 491-4533.