Country Blacksmith

The blacksmith was the lynchpin of the community. He made all the basic necessities that allowed people to conduct their daily lives. Although, often he was not given enough credit, society would never have evolved with him (or her).

This is the story of one modern day blacksmith who is upholding a craft much the way it was done hundreds of years ago. Little has changed in the forged but now days people see it more as an artform than a way to make every day tools.

So, there is still a desire for this type of art and many blacksmiths are making a living doing what they love. David Kailey is one of those artisans.

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I met David at his forge out in the Spokane Valley. It was hot and loud but we talked for a couple hours. I watched him make a couple pieces out of steel and recorded a formal interview. After about an hour of filming, I took some still photos. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to salvage everything I shot and turn it in to a video because I didn’t have the interview on video and the only background sounds I had were the blast furnace.

It took several weeks but I whittled the interview down from 40 minutes to just two and cobbled together a few video clips that made sense. Pun intended.