By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

ST. JOHNSVILLE — It was hot in the blacksmith shop on the grounds of historic Fort Klock on Sunday, and the pungent odor of hot metal and the fiery soft-coal forges that heated it filled one’s nostrils.

Visitors gathered around the fires, anvils and work benches on the second day of the fourth annual Blacksmiths’ Hammer-In event seemed not to notice, however, as they pounded red-hot pieces of steel with heavy metal hammers.

“We like to play with fire, hot metal and make lots of noise,” joked one of the men, a new member of the Capital District Blacksmiths’ Association, who said he was present to learn, to share techniques and to “keep the craft alive.”

He had a good teacher.

Blacksmith Steve Gurzler, of Ballston Lake, “has breathed a lot of historical stuff into this blacksmith shop, and he lives a long way from here,” said Stone Arabia resident Willis “Skip” Barshied, a founding member of the Fort Klock Historic Restoration.

“He’s a good member, and so faithful. This function has grown and is better this year than last year,” he said, noting the event has been a “really good thing because it brings the [site] to life.”

Gurzler, a volunteer, said he comes to the historic site and works at the smithy. “This is a hobby,” he added, noting that the name of the Hammer-In blacksmithing event came “out of the late ’60s and ’70s, when you had ‘this’-in and ‘that’-in.”

Galway resident Jace Richardson and his friend, Blain Smith, of Saratoga Springs — self-described web developers who said they are “trying to get away from the computer” — were among those present at the site on Sunday to learn from Gurzler and other craftsmen from the association.

Richardson said, “I go to [the association’s] meet-ups in Delmar, and we came here to check this one out. Since we just started, we’re trying to get techniques from the masters that come around. We’re learning from experience.”

Smith, who forged a steel calla lily for his wedding anniversary next week, joked that the first anniversary gift is supposed to be paper, “but that’ll be the card,” he said.

He noted he and Richardson have only been blacksmithing for about a month.

Among the skills Smith learned on Sunday included hammering techniques and some practical skills: “Start with square tubing instead of round to get more material to work with,” he said.

Additionally, Smith said that a person working the metal should “hit [it] with the edge of the hammer and draw it out in the direction you want instead of the face of the hammer” in order to flatten the metal.

When heating the metal, Gurzler said the steel should be orange to yellow.

Glen resident Jim Lee, a member of the blacksmiths’ association who was working on a handle for a wire brush, said the secret to getting the fire hot enough was the “air blast. We adjust the air” in the forge, he said.

“If [the metal] sparkles, it’s too hot — unless you want to weld,” said Barshied.

The fortified farmstead, which dates back to the era of the French and Indian War, belonged to the Klock family. It was used as a place of refuge during that war and the Revolutionary War that followed.

Barshied noted that the building and some of the land in the general vicinity of it were the first properties acquired by the historic preservation group.

The blacksmith shop, which was leased from a Klock family descendant, was deeded by his wife to the organization along with the rest of the property following his death, Barshied said.

“We got the blacksmith shop over 40 years ago,” he added, noting the only things in it at that time were the two original forges and a couple of benches.

“The Klock family at one time had an antique shop in here and sold a lot” of items from the property, Barshied explained.

Tools now used in the smithy came from John Hambrecht, a long-time Canajoharie farrier/blacksmith and a “friend of my father’s family and mine, too,” said Barshied, noting that he was able to acquire many of the farrier’s tools when he went out of business.