Sparks fly when Billy Phelps strikes a Y-shaped piece of hot, glowing orange steel with a hammer. It cools to dark gray as he smooths out the edges with the help of an anvil before reburying it in a tall fire of burning coals.
It's the first step in forging the steel into an ornate three-legged candlestick holder, and a crowd wrapped around the blacksmith shop at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds watches as he sketches variations on what blacksmiths could do to make the candlestick holders with different designs.
"What I'm trying to do here is to give y'all some ideas to go home and play with," Phelps said.
Phelps, of Woodlawn, Va., is no stranger to blacksmith demonstrations -- he has even given them at The Smithsonian Institution in Washington. But yesterday, he was displaying his craft here as part of an annual meeting of the Triad Chapter of the N.C. Artist-Blacksmiths Association. About 35 blacksmiths and aspiring blacksmiths attended.
Marshall Swaringen of Advance, the chapter's president, said that the demonstrations are a way for current artists to learn new techniques and to introduce the art to a new generation.
"We're trying to expand this dying art, which is no longer dying," he said.
The Industrial Revolution nearly wiped out the craft in the early 20th century as machines took over work that once was done exclusively by hand. But blacksmithing has made a comeback in recent decades, prompted by a disposable society's interest in making something lasting, Swaringen said.
"If you create something and it lasts forever, it's fulfilling," Swaringen said.
He pointed to a hook on one of the beams at the shop. It's a small piece of metalwork that's easy to overlook but includes a lot of craftsmanship, Swaringen said. The blacksmith who made it tapered the edge of the steel into a hook, bent the end over so the tip wouldn't be sharp, added a design of twisted steel at the middle for a bit of decorative flair, then made a flat top at the end with a hole so that it could be hung.
Swaringen said that when he was a child, if his family's tractor broke down, it would sometimes be up to him to get it running again until it could be repaired. He would sometimes use an acetylene torch to weld little pieces of his own.
That experience taught him about the value of being able to make your own tools. It's a lesson that he still uses today in his gun-dealer business, in which he sometimes has to make his own parts to restore antiques.
"If you get a broken old shotgun, you're not going to be able to find a firing pin for it," he said.
Andy Phillips was among those watching Phelps' demonstration. Phillips, of Morganton, is a full-time blacksmith who has been in the craft for about 10 years.
Among the things he makes are steel-headed sledgehammers, which he sells to customers all over the world. Some of them were being used in yesterday's demonstrations at the fairgrounds.
"It's nice to make a tool and then come watch people use it," he said.
pgarber@wsjournal.com.
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