Basic Information
Ye Olde Village Smithy is the place where the local Blacksmith manufactures and sells items of Iron and Steel. It's a common visit for adventurers looking to stock up, and may well be the most important store in a town. It may, in fact, be the only actual retail business in a village besides the inn, and only then as a secondary function.
It's a great place for a fight scene. In movies, sometimes we'll be treated to a Forging Scene or montage at the smithy.
Objects you'll find in the blacksmith's shop:
- apron and gloves, made of thick leather to protect from the heat (and accidents)
- anvil
- bellows to stoke the fire
- file
- firewood or other fuel
- forge
- furnace - especially if you are expecting him to make steel.
- hammers of a few different sizes
- rivets
- projects in various degree of completion, and possibly wares ready for sale.
- tongs (tool)
- vise
- water, in a large tub or bucket for quenching or putting out fires. Oil may also be used for quenching.
In later eras, all sorts of metal working and machining tools - including lathes, drills and the smaller end of presses might be found. Into the modern era, there are still village blacksmiths in the (most undeveloped) world who can manage some significant feats of metal working, and in the immediately pre-modern era (say, The Old West) it would normally be the town blacksmith you called upon to fix guns and even make replacement parts for cars, steam engines and the like. Conversely, in the early medieval period a blacksmith might actually be relatively hard to find - more a (significant town) smithy than a village one.
These days, the nearest thing you'll find is a custom metal shop - unless you can track down a craft blacksmith.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- With that hot forge and heavy tools, the village smithy has plenty of improvised weapons close at hand. It could be an exciting spot for a fight scene.
- The forge is also a source of potential danger for the town. A fire might start there and spread to nearby buildings.
- See Blacksmith and Smith for further ideas.
- Ironically, one thing you normally won't find there is weapons - weaponsmithing was a separate trade - often a separate guild - and normally outside the competence and experience of a run-of-the-mill blacksmith. He can probably have a go at making weapons - as some can be quite easily improvised from agricultural tools - but he's unlikely to have any sitting about.
- Also, they're probably not worth his time and money to make and hold in stock - most "big ticket" items (like weapons) were made to order or schedule in the middle ages. Stock was limited to stuff you could reasonably expect passing trade to purchase and that wouldn't normally include weapons, even if the smith could make them.
- Generally, be aware that this is a workshop, not a shop-shop - most of what is done here is done to order for repeat clients: you need to get into at least a town before you start getting blacksmiths running what a modern person might recognise as a shop.