Female blacksmith joins Maine Maritime Museum in Bath

Beth Holmberg hammers a piece of metal heated to 2,000 degrees at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. Holmberg is the museum’s first woman blacksmith. Maria Skillings / Times Record.

Bath’s Maine Maritime Museum brought on Journeyman Beth Holmberg as its first female blacksmith volunteer to work at the Kenneth D. Kramer Blacksmith Exhibit this season.

Holmberg has 20 years of experience in metalwork and is certified by the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America.

Holmberg said her initial interest in the craft began in Southern California, where she attended classes at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. She said she loves getting to “smack glowing metal. It’s so primal.”

Blacksmithing is typically a male-dominated field and has been since 1,500 B.C.

“It’s all old white dudes,” said Holmberg.

Hoping to change that narrative, Holmberg joined the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths, to encourage all ages, races, and genders to enjoy the craft. She said blacksmithing attracts a real “mishmash” of people from artists and hobbyists to engineers.

Holmberg said it is a common misconception that you need to be “big and strong” to be a blacksmith. She said it isn’t how hard you hit with your hammer, but how you use it. The hammer is only 2 pounds.

“Older arthritic women get more done, more effectively, than some of these young bucks,” she said.

Blacksmith shop manager Michael Hetzel agreed with Holmberg.

“If you want something done get a blacksmith, if you want it done right, get a female blacksmith,” said Hetzel.

Now a teacher of blacksmithing, Holmberg said she still takes on the occasional commissioned project, including custom light fixtures, gates or fire tools. She said she looks at blacksmithing as “reverse engineering” where she imagines her finished product and works backward to discern the first step.

Beth Holmberg teaches The Zinn Family from upstate New York, how to twist metal. Maria Skillings / The Times Record

Holmberg said blacksmiths once used wrought iron to build custom pieces for ships, but today the material is too expensive and requires extensive labor. She said the common replacement today is steel, used for structures like the Empire State Building.

However, she said steel cannot be used on schooners because it would rust out within a year due to the sea air.

As guests stopped by the exhibit, Holmberg demonstrated how to heat the iron to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing her to hammer, mold, and twist it. She said the iron has to be at least 1,000 degrees and glowing in order to work with the material. Once the iron is pulled from the fire, the blacksmith has less than a minute to work with the metal, before needing to reheat it. Holmberg said the smaller a piece is, the longer it takes because it cools quickly.

Maine Maritime Museum has nine blacksmith volunteers working at the exhibit, an evocation of the original 1914 blacksmith shop, which produced the metalwork to build the ship Wyoming and many of her sister ships.

“It’s entertaining and informative for visitors,” Museum Communications Director Amanda Pleau said, “to come and get a sense of the scale and scope of what shipbuilding was like back then, with a live demonstration.”