With a resounding CLANG, Dave Kauffman brings the hammer down on the magma-red steel, showering the area around his anvil with glowing, 2,000-degree sparks. Kauffman is a blacksmith, and showing ...

The anvil is a 114-pound chunk of iron, heavily scarred from hundreds of hammer strikes against red-hot metal pieces over the years. In the corner, a modest furnace is filled with charred coals. The ...

Fire, steel, and a steady hand can turn a common metal bar into something you want to stop and admire. Blacksmiths create objects that work hard first, and then surprise you with small moments of ...

ATHENS, Alabama -- Al Stephens has a hard time keeping his hands still. Most days, he puts them to work in the blacksmith shop behind his house here in rural northern Alabama, practicing an ancient ...