The Blacksmith

In this Roy Spence film, created for the Ulster Folk Museum, Joe O’Neill shows a range of blacksmithing skills and techniques using tools and methods that have not changed in centuries. These include heat welding, scarfing, scrolling, curling and bending. All completed in a traditional simple forge. The original version of the film included an audio track explaining the history, tools and techniques of a blacksmith, however even as a silent film, the powerful visuals of this timeless skill remains evident.

Roy Spence is an award-winning amateur filmmaker. For the past 50 years, Spence has been making and screening a series of remarkable and sometimes eccentric films in his cinema in Comber, Co. Down. The films span many genres from sci-fi to horror to folk-life documentaries shot between 1965 and 1986. His collection of over 40 films (13 documentaries/non-fiction and 29 fiction feature films) is held and preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. To watch more of the Roy Spence Collection click here.