"What thmilitary blacksmith in the field?" Topic

Gents,Wonder what the blacksmith did in the field O.K.
not just horseshoe making right? best to you al serge joe

For sure no nose picking huh? greetings serge joe

If they had a grinding wheel, they would have assisted the armourers in sharpening swords and bayonets before a battle.

They made and/or repaired metal pieces and fittings in the field. Think about all of the iron items and fittings that would be used in camp and field.

And horseshoeing would have occupied a significant part of his time.

In the British Army blacksmith duties were performed by the Pioneer Sergeant who otherwise carried an axe in the field to assist in clearing a path for the regiment and also for killing wounded horses in consort with each companies pioneer.

The blacksmith duties would be performed when in camp.

Jim – The axe was never used to actually kill the horse (that was done with a pistol shot to the head). The axe was to remove the hoof that carried the horse's regimental number, in order to verify the animal's loss (a precaution against troopers selling their mounts and claiming they had died).

@Supercilius Maximus

Thanks for that.

I think the Pioneer Sergeants are applicable to infantry.

It seems that cavalry regiments had Farrier Sergeants who had axes to despatch wounded horses, but also to chop off their hooves. A military horse was a valuable piece of kit, and it was not unknown for unscrupulous cavalrymen to sell the horse and claim it had died.

A blacksmith would be extremely busy, he made all of the fittings, new rims for wheels, axles, chains, tracers, the nails and rivets, all for repair for cannons, carriages and wagons, camp equipment repairs, horse bridle fittings, bits, saddle, pack saddle, stirup, spur repairs and maintenance let alone make and shoe the horses, or do any cash grey jobs.

A cavalry or artillery train would have had extra farriers within the troops to help, but the shoes would still need to be shaped and made on the go. Hot shoeing was very popular, and the blacksmiths were the only ones with charcoal forges to do this.

For example a regt of 500 officers and men would have with wagons and remounts let's say about 800 horses, on campaign horse shoes would wear out every 4 to 6 weeks depending upon terrain. Rocky terrain or long distances on cobbled roads would be worse I suspect.

That is 3200 horse shoes and 16480 nails and that needs to be made every 4 weeks to keep in front of moderate wear and tare on campaign.

A good book on a blacksmiths role is Kevin Killeys Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars

Cheers
Matt

Sory guys
I just ased!
I went to a fea market bought a rare dutch horse shoe shoe looks like a normal one but you can put some bolds in them to prevent the horse sliping on ice! do not know how to give you a picture of it found some thing like this nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoefijzer the 6th picture by the way we call them kalkoen as in Turkey see left of the picture!!! greetings serge joe

link
Found a picture of a Russian Forge. Going to to try it scratch build.

These guys needed a lot of yron greetings serge joe

I thought this topic would be a short one it turned out beter than i had for seen greetings serge joe

In combat, the Russian blacksmiths in an infantry regiment would assist in care of the wounded, and would actually be riding in one of the two ambulance wagons in each battalion. The "battalion aid station" was 2 ambulance wagons, 1 doctor (батальонный лекарь), 1 doctor's assistant (фельдшер) and 2 blacksmiths (кузнецов)

Maybe a better illustration of the Russian field forge ….

Russian (Cossack) field forge drawn from life by Klein in 1813

Austrian field forge drawn from life in by Klein in 1814

- Саша