"Post-80s" Wang Jinlong's blacksmith career

Jinmei

One

The ancients believed that horses had magical spirituality, iron could deal with demons and ghosts, and the crescent shape of the horseshoe symbolized the image of the mother, so in many countries the horseshoe was considered a symbol of luck.

It's like a fantasy.

Amid the impact of iron tools and the splashing sparks, horseshoes were born under Wang Jinlong's (first from the right). Photo by Jiao Shengfu

In the vast northern region of China, from court horses, entertainment horses, military horses, to civilian common military horses, horses are widely used, which has promoted the birth of horse paws. According to accurate historical records, it was not until the Yuan Dynasty that the horseshoe was widely used in the Central Plains. There is no earlier record of the use of the horsehoe, perhaps because the horsehoe is inconspicuous, and the handiwork of the historians has been robbed by major events, and they disdain or have no time to take care of it, nor do they know.

"Iron horse glacier into a dream", the poem is full of iron horses, iron horses, I think in addition to describing the expansion of territory, the northern cavalry swept through the mountains and rivers of the mighty rapidity, may still use horseshoes to refer to cavalry. Forgive me for my delusions, the borrowing of horseshoes, the poetic spark that was wiped out, in the prosperous Tang poetry and Song Poetry, gave birth to a place for extended exhibition and extravagance.

In the 1st century AD, the Romans regarded the horsehoe as synonymous with casual romance, and gave it the reputation of "horse sandals". The most practical function of "horse sandals" in the Yuan Dynasty was to fulfill the dream of the expansion of the Mongol army. From the Northern Desert Provinces, the destruction of the Western Xia and the Northern Jin Dynasty, to the sweep of the Eurasian continent by iron horses, the horse's paw interprets another meaning of "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

Coincidentally, in 1485, King Richard III of England and Count Henry fought a decisive battle in Bosworth, in which the king lost a battle because his mount suddenly dropped a horse's paw. To this end, irish folk left a song: "Missing an iron nail, losing a horse's paw." A horse's paw was lost, a war horse was lost. Lose a war horse, lose a king. Losing a king, losing a battle. A battle was lost, a dynasty was ruined. ”

In the history of the rise and fall of the two dynasties in China and abroad, the little horse's paw has reversed the situation with the force of four or two thousand pounds. How incredible it is to think about it.

In the vicissitudes of the sea, the horseshoe follows the era of the horseshoe and the wind and clouds, and in the Pastoral Areas of Qinghai and the Hehuang Region, the exuberant memories of the Horseshoe are now far away. The horseshoe seems to have long since withdrawn from the life scene in which it was built and used, and there is no doubt that its value is diminishing.

Two

I heard that Wang Jinlong, a "post-80s" Wang Jinlong in Gazhuang Village, Huangyuan County, Xining City, unlike most rural youth who go out to work, do not indulge in fast hands and vibrato, but in a dark blacksmith shop, playing iron and making horseshoes, it is really a bit strange.

Photo by Jiao Shengfu

His birth was almost the same era as the horseshoe's remoteness in the agricultural areas. If it were not for the paws played by his fathers in the family, he might have lost touch with the declining horseshoe of the Hehuang area like all the "post-80s" youth, and then his life would probably have been rewritten.

With a strong body and a cheerful personality, Wang Jinlong looked very confident and optimistic. He was self-sufficient in the small workshop of more than ten square meters, and he was self-sufficient in the cold iron world composed of air hammers, iron stoves, iron beds, iron tongs, twist iron bars, and iron nail heads. Because the clanging of iron and the sparks of sparks are his vitality and light.

The afternoon sun shines through two old glass windows, slanting into the clearings and air hammers of the house, making the bleak cabin more glittered, a bit like a shot from a movie. The blacksmith shop has a small air hammer used to hit the nail head (that is, the nail that nails the horseshoe), which is shaped like a fish, so it is also called "fish anvil". Next to a square iron stove, the exuberant flame is burning a dozen finger-thick twisted steel bars, waiting to be forged into a U-shape at any time. Right-hand window is an electric eye-puncher, next to which is a small square iron bed for tools at any time.

In the middle of the room, there was a large air hammer that was high above the human head, and the air hammer was green around the body, and the mottled iron skin was cocked in many places, as if it was silently telling its glorious past. The two square pieces of iron attached to the front of the hammer body are eye-catching. One is the factory instructions, which read "Air Hammer of Forging Equipment Factory in Xyang County, Hubei Province", as well as the model, weight, factory number and date of the air hammer. I looked at it specifically in 1974. The other is red and reads, "The people, and only the people, are the driving force behind the creation of world history." ”

Looking at the middle of the sprinkled dusty land, the material of the horseshoe- twist steel bars and the beaten horseshoe lying in a messy pile, I finally saw a little of the doorway of the workshop layout. The reason why the ground is not made into a smooth cement floor or brick floor is because the elasticity of the soil floor has a decompression effect, which is convenient for releasing foot force during labor, so that people are not too tired, and when working, relatively hardening the ground, you can dissolve the harsh sound made by the iron tools that are placed on the ground, and reduce the masochistic decibel of the ear. Fish anvils and air hammers by the window, used to beat nail heads and eyes, are all delicate tasks in the horseshoe beating process and require light.

It seems that even a dim workshop made of iron and horseshoe has its delicate side.

Wang Jinlong said bluntly: "To play a horse's paw, to put it bluntly, is to strike iron." We all laughed, because in the Qinghai dialect, people often use the word "striking iron" to describe a person who behaves grotesquely and "has nerves."

"Usually to play a horse's paw, it takes five processes, according to our jargon, to go through 'five fires.'"

What's the point? Wang Jinlong said bluntly: "You don't understand what you said, so let me show it to you." With that, he walked over to the iron stove and used the tongs to pluck up the already red-hot steel bar to heat it more evenly, which was a fire. When the steel bar is red, quickly clip out the red-hot steel bar and press the shape on the air hammer. Only to see his left hand with fire tongs, quickly send the steel bar into the machine hammer to press the tip to fine, and then the right hand on the cutting board when a few times to hit the bend, and then use the hand hammer into a thick edge of the thick inner bent horseshoe U-shape, which is the so-called second fire. The third fire, on the air hammer that replaces the artificial, gives the iron palm that has begun to take on a U-shaped appearance. Wang Jinlong used both hands and feet, used foot pedals to control the power supply, clamped the U-shaped iron palm with iron tongs in one hand, and moved the eye with the other hand. For a time the motor boomed, the air hammer beat the iron palm into a flat semicircle, the upper and lower layers of iron were rhythmically one by one, and almost at the same time chiseled out of the relatively symmetrical six palm eyes, and finally corrected the chiseled horseshoe eye, making it smooth and beautiful. The fourth fire hits the other half of the U-shape and polishes the entire edge, which is both practical and aesthetically pleasing. The last fire, the horseshoe burns another fire, polishing the entire edge, the purpose is also to make it both practical and beautiful. After these "five fires", a horsehoe can be considered fully formed.

It's a bit dazzling to watch. Suddenly the machine roared, suddenly the iron was burned, and suddenly accompanied by the movement of the iron, the hand hammer continued to strike rapidly. The whole process is to keep hitting iron, hitting, hitting, hitting. The iron rod is beaten into iron bars, the iron bars are beaten into semicircles, semi-circles are beaten into eyes, and then burned and polished. Skilled process, fast operation, light action, cutting the iron kung fu, before and after playing a horse's paw also took only a few minutes.

Because Wang Jinlong's kung fu skills are skilled, it seems to be very easy. I tried to clamp the steel bar with a fire tongs in one hand and raise a hammer in the other. Unexpectedly, I simply could not use the fire tongs to clamp the steel bars of the round rod, let alone roll at will; the hammer was not light, and it was powerless to lift a few times, let alone take the hot iron, and the two hands tacitly cooperated to form the desired curvature scale.

His every step was so skilled that it was completed almost in the blink of an eye. I was afraid that I would not have enough eyesight, I would not be able to look away, and I would be nervous, but I still missed some details that were fleeting and could not be said. Wang Jinlong verbally combed through the demonstration just now. It seems that "the text is not caught" applies to the same as the manual labor of the technical. In addition to the eyesight, there is also the heat of the face and hands, the concentration of attention, the continuous exertion of the arms, and after a while, I see that because he constantly wipes the sweat, his face and forehead, which were originally smeared with some flowers, are also a sloppy look. No wonder on a cold day, he wore only a long-sleeved shirt.

As the saying goes, "No diamonds, no porcelain work." "It seems that without iron fighting, you can't do iron work." Wang Jinlong smiled and thought deeply.

I deeply realized that in addition to being dirty and tired, it is also necessary to be fast in the eyes, and use both eyesight and movement. It seems that a rough work that only requires physical exertion, but it actually requires ingenuity, the grasp of the heat, the adjustment of the arc of the air hammer, the visual measurement of the curvature of the horseshoe and the degree of running between the two, excessive into scrap iron, and if it is not enough, it is necessary to start again. Every step, in addition to labor, also depends on the measurement of eye force, the grasp of the feel, the cooperation of fire and iron, hand and hammer.

It seems that striking iron not only tests people's endurance, but also tests people's tenacity and carefulness.

Three

I saw that the formed horseshoes were all beaten into six eyes, and I thought it was one. Wang Jinlong was like a number of family treasures, and patiently said.

Depending on the size of the horseshoe, the horseshoe is divided into four eyes, five eyes, six eyes, or even seven eyes. In addition to the two or two horseshoes used for small ponies, it is generally suitable for the five-eyed and six-eyed horseshoes in Qinghai, and the iron five-six-two. And the pony because of the soft hooves, only hit the four eyes of the palm, hit more hoof skin will rise layers. There are also six-eyed "big wide" horseshoes with one pound and two pairs, that is, the Xinghai horse with a hoof width of 18 cm to 20 cm, known as the "Big Ocean Horse". He said that he also did this line of work to know this.

When we talked about the use of horses less and less, affecting the horseshoe business, he said unexpectedly: "The business is good." If you think about it, how long have you not seen an iron striker, and are there still blacksmiths around? ”

A word woke me up in ignorance. "Except for a few townships, there are almost only my family left in the blacksmith shops around the county town, as far as Haixi Hainan and as close as Haibei, and those who need to give horseshoe are basically here to play horseshoe." While talking, Wang Jinlong received a phone call, but instead of playing horseshoe, the other party ordered a sword more than three feet long to use in folk activities. He said that there are many such jobs. Our topic is temporarily related to other iron tools other than the horseshoe.

What is the use of the horseshoe? Wang Jinlong continued to talk. The invention of the horseshoe greatly reduced the wear and tear of the horse's hooves. He said that the horseshoe has two layers of dingjia (dialect, i.e. stratum corneum). When nailing the horseshoe, first cut the bottom layer, and then polish and smooth, and then the second layer left is nailed to the horseshoe, installed on the horseshoe, and nailed to the palm eye, so that the horseshoe is strong and solid.

Doesn't the horse's hoof hurt when nailing the horseshoe? He said that there were no nerves on the horse's hooves, and that the horseshoe were nailed, and the horses were more comfortable to walk, so the horses were willing. I know that in the past, those horses that had to go long distances had to be nailed to the horseshoe, such as those used for long-distance transportation, so what about today? He said that in addition to the horses used in life in the pastoral areas today, there are also horses participating in jockey clubs. There are also two kinds of horses at the horse race, one is a speed horse and the other is a walking horse. Speed race I understand, why the horse needs it. He said that the horses at the jockey club mainly rely on the walking hand (walking posture), and the horse with the horse's paw nailed to the horse's shoe walking up the road to show the board (the posture is straight) is good-looking. Therefore, there is a kind of half-kilogram horseshoe, which is specially used for this kind of horse, and a little lighter and heavier will affect the horse's walking hand (walking posture), resulting in the horse being eliminated.

Horse walker? I suddenly remembered that on the slope of the West Gate of Huangyuan in Dancheng, there used to be a place dedicated to nailing horseshoes.

In the 1980s, my cousin once took me to give her already crooked high heels spiked soles. We walked out of the old street to Ximenpo, but we saw a few horses first. I wondered if my cousin had gone to the wrong place, but my cousin laughed that I had never seen the world, and said sarcastically that the horses were nailed from your country. It is also said that only when the horseshoe is nailed, the horse's hooves are not worn, and the horse can go more far, just like I nailed the heel. I was a little angry when I said that, and I took advantage of her shoe nailing to see how to nail the horseshoe. I saw the horseshoe master with a leather skirt, using a knife to cut off a layer of skin from the horse's hoof, making it smooth and smooth, installing the U-shaped iron palm on the horse's hoof, and then nailing a special horseshoe nail on the horse's paw eye, and directly nailing it with a hammer. Strangely enough, those nailed horses were at the mercy of others, obediently without any painful performance. It turned out to be so.

Interestingly, at that time, high heels were in full swing, and the boys in the city were wearing half-heeled shoes with rocket heads. This provides a business opportunity for those outsiders who come to Dancheng to make a living and stay. Those astute outsiders, with a small hand-cranked spike machine and some half-moon shaped iron or Oxford palms, supported the family.

Huangyuan locals, whether they give horseshoe nails or shoes nail palms, are all called nail horseshoe. The difference is that the one who gives the horse a nail must be a local with experience in the old way; the one who gives the shoe nail is a astute outsider who has an insight into life.

Later, the Ximen Po nail horseshoe gradually disappeared. Instead, shoe stalls flow everywhere.

Thinking back to this, I said: "The horseshoe nailed to the horse's hooves is like a person wearing high heels, and he can't help but straighten his chest and abdomen, and his walking posture is naturally straight and beautiful." Wang Jinlong repeatedly said yes.

Four

Because I had seen iron collection at the Ximenpo Waste Station before, and now I saw that almost all the steel bars in the iron shop were reinforced, I had doubts about whether it was better to use steel bars for horseshoes or iron. Wang Jinlong said that there are fewer and fewer horseshoes to beat with iron, and now more and more hemp steel (used in construction) is used to beat horseshoes. The rigidity of hemp steel is strong, the horseshoe that comes out is easy to fall off, and the horseshoe is not comfortable. The iron used before, because of the less impurities, strong flexibility, high density, the horseshoe is more durable. He said that the horseshoe made of good iron has been used for a long time, and the thick places in front of the hooves are quickly sharpened into knives.

How long this has been tempered, it is really an "iron horse".

I looked at the small nail head on the side of the fish anvil by the window and asked a little more. Wang Jinlong solemnly said, don't look at such a nail, you also want two fires. It's another demonstration. 6 mm thick steel bar, one fire to hit the tip of the fine, two fire to hit the nail head cover. On the fish-shaped small air hammer, it is difficult to grasp the strength. The four-sided nail cover is flattened into a trapezoidal shape with a hammer on the left and right, and the force should be even. He said that the force was too strong, the nail head ran away, the force was not enough, but it was wasted, and the material was wasted. He said that when he was younger, he could hit 700 such nails and 20 pairs of horseshoes a day. And a pair of horseshoes, on average, have to hit two hundred times. I sighed.

I always thought that he had inherited his father's craftsmanship, who knew that he had inherited his uncle's skills and tools. My uncle's son started out as a horse's paw, but later switched to welding and gave him the workshop. I joked, how can people take over the drudgery of ignoring it so deadly?

Wang Jinlong said confidently: "Blacksmiths are basic craftsmen, and the tools of carpenters and stonemasons in the past were inseparable from blacksmiths." Compared with my uncles, I have ready-made workshops and tools, and I have the skills taught by my uncles, earn money in front of the house, inherit the family craftsmanship and take care of the family, and are not subject to the pain of wind and sun. He said that in addition to the income of the couple's farming and labor vegetable greenhouses, the income from taking time out of the horse's paw in a year is also more than 100,000 yuan.

Sounds like a good choice. Nowadays, in the countryside, when it comes to getting rich, it is often the number of hundreds of thousands of yuan or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, which makes me stunned after leaving the countryside for decades. Compared with most of the "post-80s" who choose to wander in the city, my curiosity about Wang Jinlong is precisely the stability and prosperity exchanged for this string of hard numbers.

Stepping out of the blacksmith shop, on the way, I secretly thought to myself, for the inheritance and adherence to a traditional skill, it is not enough to bear the hardships of physical strength, but also need to have enough courage and the ability to resist various temptations, in order to overcome various difficulties and walk out of a road that ordinary people cannot get out of.

Manuscript source: Qinghai Daily client Statement: In addition to indicating the source of the manuscript, the above content is the original manuscript of Qinghai Daily, the copyright is owned by the media platform of Qinghai Daily, and it is strictly forbidden to reprint without written permission.