Adam Prudhomme
Editor
History with a modern twist was on display at the Bath Museum on July 12 as Mathieu Larocque demonstrated the tools of the blacksmith trade.
Larocque, who is based in Napanee and describes himself as a ‘modern blacksmith’, owns and operates Toasted Metal Forge. His presentation was part of the ongoing Exploration Days, hosted all summer long by Loyalist Township.
As part of his talk, he brought some of his many metal creations, from decorative black roses to wall hooks, along with some of the tools he uses to create.
“(Learning blacksmithing) is something that I have wanted to do for a long time,” said Larocque, who is self taught. “I started doing it and my family advised that I had a great-grandpa that was a village blacksmith, which was kind of cool, so I guess it is in the blood.”
Once a very necessary profession, the role of the blacksmith has diminished significantly over the centuries. Now mostly a hobby, interest in the skill is on the rise.
“There has been a big resurgence as Forged in Fire came out, a lot of people are interested in the blades, not as much as the traditional blacksmithing,” said Larocque, referring to the History Channel show which focuses on blade smiths attempting to forge bladed weapons, harkening back to the medieval era.
Bath Museum was the perfect location for his talk, as many of the artifacts on display were created using traditional blacksmith methods of their time.
“The historical part of it is very interesting,” he said. “I try to cover it as much as possible. I’m a modern blacksmith, I don’t work with coal mostly because I live in a residential area and coal has a lot of smoke. Coal forges are a great source of historical data, though it depends on what period of time you go into. There’s different tools, different forges, different anvils. It can get pretty vast pretty quick. I do like to collect historical tools and bring them back to life.”
His restoration of tools goes beyond decorative as he prefers to keep them for their intended purpose.
“I like to use them, I don’t want to display them,” he added. “The history of the old tool has got a mystique to it.”
In their heyday, a blacksmith was an integral part of a village and would be counted on from everything from shoeing horses to maintaining cookware.
“Sometimes they wouldn’t even take pay, they would take a trade,” explained Larocque. “They would trade metal for work because metal was hard to come by back in the day. Good steel was more valuable to them so they would trade work for good steel.”
After his talk, the young members of the audience had the chance to try it out with a hands-on clay activity.
Demonstrations like at the Bath Museum are a great way to keep the history alive.
“I think the main thing is getting in front of the public, showing the tools off and sometimes I’ll do demonstrations,” said Larocque.
Exploration Days will continue weekly throughout July and August, taking place Thursdays at Odessa’s Babcock Mill (100 Bridge St.) and Fridays at the Bath Museum (434 Main St.) They run 10 a.m. to noon and are free for all ages. For a full list of events visit Loyalist.ca/events.