On a recent Friday morning, blacksmith Bill Smith stands over the coals at his workshop at the Cattle Track Arts Compound in Scottsdale. It's almost 100 degrees outside already, but it's even hotter in Smith's workshop, where he's crafting an ornate fireplace poker.
Smith, 75, has been a professional blacksmith since 1950, when he completed a five-year apprenticeship in the small village in Scotland where he grew up. Back then, his work primarily consisted of making horseshoes for Clydesdale horses and iron gates for local farms.
These days, Smith does custom work for interior designers and their
clients. He makes fireplace pokers, bed frames, chairs, tables, and
pretty much anything else that can be forged from iron. The old world
aesthetic of Smith's pieces appeals to a wide range of clientele,
including notables like photographer Bruce Weber, who used Smith's workshop as the setting for a photo shoot for the Italian version of Vogue magazine.
"He came in here for a photo shoot, for one of those teeny bopper
stores. He had the models and all, and he came in here, and I was like,
'My god, why would you want to come in here and take pictures for
Vogue?'" Smith says. "He came in after hours, and had music outside.
The models were guys. I didn't get the pleasure of meeting the women."
Smith's bewilderment at Weber's choice of his workshop is
understandable - the workshop is hot, smells like burning coals, and is
filled with the tools of his trade - hammers, iron rods, and anvils.
Most blacksmiths these days use gas or propane, but Smith still uses
only coal.
"I just like the nostalgia," he says. "I should be dead by now,
breathing all this smoke. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, but
I've made up for it that way."
Among Smith's latest works is a bouquet of roses made from iron. Smith
explains that he made a similar piece for a widow who was tired
of thieves taking the roses from her husband's grave. Along with his
ornate fireplace pokers, each decorated with faces, the iron roses are
among Smith's more detailed works.
"There's some stuff I'd love to make, like the masks with fancy
wreathes. But that's a different class," Smith says. "I was just a
country blacksmith, shoeing horses and things like that. I didn't make
anything like this in Scotland. I just did traditional stuff, like if
somebody broke a plow or something like that. In the 50s, we were still
using horses for plowing. Of course, that fell by the wayside when
tractors came into use."
Whether he's making custom dining chairs or horseshoes, Smith's
just happy to be doing what he loves. "This is all I do. I don't golf
or anything like that," he says. "I think it keeps me going. I come in
here around 5:30 in the morning. I've never worked at any other job. I
wouldn't know what to do."
For more information on the custom blacksmith works of Bill Smith, call 480-991-2245.
