Visited the old forge at Saugus Iron Works and the guide said something about modern smiths that got under my skin

Jamie Burns · 2026-10-10T20:25:03.778396+00:00

I drove out to Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts two weekends ago because I wanted to see the reconstruction in person. The guide showed us the hammer and the bellows setup, then told the crowd that nobody does real forge work anymore, that it all died out with the water wheel. Half the crowd nodded along while I'm standing there in a shirt I burned a hole in the night before. So I'm torn: was he just dumbing it down for tourists, or do we bring this on ourselves by working alone in our garages where nobody sees it? Would you have said something to the guy, or let it slide for the sake of the tour?

Librear

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Visited the old forge at Saugus Iron Works and the guide said something about modern smiths that got under my skin | Blacksmiths - Librear