Red Net Moment Xiangxi, January 5 (Baojing Rong Media Reporter Liu Fan) The first rays of sunlight in the morning sprinkled into the dim work room through two pieces of glass on the roof. The two brothers, Huang Dejing and Huang Xun, began a new day's work. The red-hot fire reflects Huang Xun's face, Huang Dejing on the side is seriously pulling the bellows, and the two brothers are working together to make a knife ordered by the customer. With the sound of Dangdang's blows, in the splash of sparks, a kitchen knife gradually appeared in its rudiments.
Traces ancient fireworks
Blacksmithing is a primitive forging process, and being a blacksmith in the 1980s became a good way to settle down. But now, with the development of mechanization, this traditional technique, which has the symbol of multiple dynastic civilizations, has declined. However, in a house in the Jiefu Group of Huaqiao Village, Changtanhe Township, Baojing County, there is still such an "original" blacksmith shop - Huang ji Blacksmith Shop.
The traditional skills of the Huang family blacksmith in Huaqiao Village originated in Jiuqu Bay, Mayang County, Huaihua City during the Qing Yongzheng Period (1720s), and their descendants moved to Maochangping, Fenghong Village, Shuitianhe Town, Baojing County, and Huaqiao Village, Changtanhe Township, to receive blessings, and have been passed down for 11 generations so far.
"Our Huang family has been blacksmiths for generations, passed down from generation to generation, and by the time their brothers are in their generation, they are already the eleventh generation. When I took over the blacksmith shop from my father, blacksmithing was still a popular business, and there were several blacksmiths in every township at that time, and even several blacksmith shops on a street. At that time, our brothers opened shops in nearby counties and cities. Speaking of the family grand occasion that year, the old man Huang Changqing seemed to have a fire burning in his eyes.
The products of Huang Ji Blacksmith Shop cover agricultural production tools such as plough rake shovels and shovels, folk craftsmen's tools such as knives, household necessities such as chopping knives, folk culture tools such as three beam cannons, and old weapons such as swords and spears. Inheriting the unique traditional craftsmanship accumulated by the Huang family for nearly 300 years, the various agricultural tools and living tools created by the Huang family have been durable and have always been popular with the residents of the surrounding villages and county towns. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, in the LüdongShan Miao District, it was widely rumored that to buy a good knife, it was necessary to go to the "card leak" (the Miao language of the original address of "Baojing Blacksmith Traditional Craftsmanship", "Fenghong"), and when people showed their skills or warned others, they always said metaphorically, "Try the yellow blacksmith steel fire".
In the early days of the founding of New China, the ninth generation of the "Huangjia Blacksmith Traditional Skills" was uniformly dispatched by the Baojing County Government, which was included in the management of traditional craftsmen, enjoyed the treatment of government workers, and produced tens of thousands of various living utensils full-time for decades.
Exploration skills, thousands of hammers
A good iron, from raw materials to finished products, must go through nine steps such as material selection, fire, cutting, stripping, breaking, boiling, quenching, polishing, etc., and then go through thousands of times of repeated tempering in the production process, sweat and fire blended. To make a qualified product, every step is sloppy, and each step needs to be accurate to the degree. When firing, you need to pay attention to temperature, look at the color of the flame to grasp the softness and hardness, pay attention to the angle when pounding, and look at the degree of flatness to grasp the thickness.
Today, he is the only one who has a blacksmith shop left in the entire Changtan River Township.
As the folk saying goes, "Three sufferings in life: striking iron, punching boats, and grinding tofu". The blacksmith endured the heat day and night by the furnace, ranking first among the three sufferings. In the spark collision, Huang Dejing and Huang Xun, two brothers, took over the craft from their father Huang Changqing, and it has been more than 20 years.
"Master Huang, have you arrived at the house?" I've come to buy something. At noon, the two brothers were eating lunch, but they heard someone outside the courtyard shouting for something. The person who came was Liang Shijun, a carpenter from Nadong Village, who had been a carpenter for 30 years and had been using carpentry tools made by the Huang family. "The steel fire is good, the quality of the things made is good, in addition to my carpentry tools, there are other kitchen knives, wood knives, sickles, all bought in his house, decades of old customers, today's buy of frustration is estimated to be able to use a few years." Buying his favorite setback, Liang Shijun hurried back to continue his work.
Inherit the original intention
The inheritance between Huang's father and son, master and apprentice is not only the transmission of blacksmithing skills and knowledge, but also the empowerment of people and morality.
From an early age, Huang Deqing and Huang Xun chose to go home after graduating from high school to learn to play iron with their father Huang Changqing and inherit their ancestral business. "To be honest, playing iron is bitter or bitter, but this technology also allows me to have a skill to live in, and I love my career and don't feel bitter." Moreover, the son inherits his father's business, takes the baton of inheritance from my father's hand, and continues to inherit the craftsmanship of the old ancestors, and he does not feel bitter. Huang Xun sighed.
"My father kept telling us. To make tools for anyone, we must do our best, do our best, make the product the best, and be responsible for every customer who buys. When those customers used it, and then met me and said that they were very satisfied, very comfortable to use, at that time, I felt the happiest, I felt very successful. Huang Deqing said with a smile.
Today, his father, Huang Changqing, is old, and only the two brothers Huang Dejing and Huang Xun are left in the family to make iron, but they still retain the skills of hand refining. Now thousands of pieces of various products are created every year. And with its high quality in the neighboring counties and cities of fame, customers mostly come to the door to buy, or telephone customization. Not only that, repeat customers also bring more customers, the products are exported to Yunnan-Guizhou provinces and the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian, as far as Africa.
Do not forget the original intention is easy to get, always difficult to keep a fire, inherit the old craftsmanship. I hope that this industry can continue to continue, 12 generations, 13 generations, 14 generations... Pass on this ancient skill from generation to generation.