Apr 25, 2004 By Angie Santello 4 min read

RICES LANDING – On a picturesque day along the Monongahela River, the W.A. Young & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop played host once again Saturday to practitioners of the antique blacksmithing and whitesmithing trades. Now in its 15th year, the annual Hammer-In was the center of activity for about 100 people from the tri-state area throughout the day.

Kenneth Pryor of Michigan traveled to the festivities with his two brothers from Washington County. Pryor was astounded with the art forms demonstrated inside the doors of the historic shop.

“It’s amazing, and the shop and demonstrations were awesome,” he said.

“And there’s just a lot of fine people involved who are sharp, smart and knowledgeable about everything,” said his brother, Walter Pryor. “It’s like one big family, really.”

Each year for almost two decades, the shop on Water Street has welcomed hundreds to a day of displays by the Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmith Association (PAABA) and West Virginia’s Appalachian Blacksmiths Association (ABA).

Kenneth Pryor added that he visited the shop once again this year because he just had to see the building again.

According to the Greene County Historical Society, William A. Young built the machine shop in 1900, and in 1908, he expanded the building to include the foundry. The shop closed its doors in 1965, and in 1985, the historical society purchased it. The shop is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Proud to see the foundry in use, Rices Landing resident Erlene Leighty said it’s a small group of dedicated people that works to ensure the building is being preserved.

“It’s a historic building, and they will go just as far as it takes to keep things going,” she said.

“It’s just a matter of coordinating the history in Greene County.”

Leighty added that she would still like to see more members of the community enjoy the festival.

Her festival companion, Charlotte Murphy of Jefferson, added, “People don’t appreciate the past and this building for what it stands for and contributed to life, the river, the boats, even cars. If you needed a drive shaft, people used to come here to have it made.”

Carrying an armful of metal blacksmithing bars, Suzanne Fisher of Greensburg agreed that the foundry was the root of everyday life in the small locale.

“We have to save some of our history,” she said. “That particular shop did so much for this area in terms of river travel. All the old tools and equipment are still deemed operational.”

In fact, members of the Greene County Historical Society will bring the shop into living, breathing life again when the foundry hosts a Milwaukee television station to film the magic next month.

“There’s so much history,” she added. “That’s what got my husband involved in blacksmithing in the first place, the history.”

For her husband, Richard Fisher, the work is a stress reliever.

“Where else can you get dirty, play with fire and beat on something,” he said. “It’s making something out of nothing, simply out of a piece of metal. I like to refer to it as an art instead of a trade.”

Inside the pattern room of the old shop, Fisher took careful notes as demonstrator Dave Yuhas of Greensburg crafted the body of a beer stein from a 20-by-30-inch sheet of 28-gauge tin with a whitesmith’s soiled hands.

“It’s a very relaxing hobby,” Yuhas said about the “cold work” of a whitesmith compared to the “hot work” of a blacksmith. “You don’t get burned, and you don’t have to worry about coal smoke.”

Foundry visitors gazed at Yuhas’ pieces, which included a globe made of copper slabs spaced apart, a hanging light made of frosted glass Yuhas said was retrieved from the junk pile outside an old hotel and a lamp complete with a beaded or punched honeybee pattern.

“To build the skills, it takes a long time,” he said. “I’m still on the steep side of the learning curve.”

Yuhas is a member of the PAABA, and most of the group’s 250 members traveled to Rices Landing on Saturday to delight in the shaping and molding that takes place at the blacksmithing festival year after year.

Bob Rupert, vice president of the PAABA, said although the trade dates back to the 1800s when the blacksmith was the neighborhood “repair person,” he sees new members each year. A few signed up Saturday, he said.

“By far, it’s not a dying art form,” Rupert said. “I see it as just coming alive.”