Miran Matošević, blacksmith

‘The smell of coal and blacksmith’s fire entered my soul and I became ‘captured’ by this craft,’ says Miran. The tradition of blacksmithing in the Matošević family is over a hundred years old, and it started with Miran’s grandfather, passed on to his father, and has been burning in Miran’s heart for over twenty years. He is the youngest blacksmith in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the youngest in the entire region.

He learned the craft from his grandfather and father, literally growing up by the blacksmith’s fire. He completed the metal-turning craft and has over twenty years of blacksmithing experience.

Growing up with the smell of coal and a blacksmith’s fire with his grandfather and father, the love for blacksmithing crept into Miran’s heart early on. But he has only been doing this craft for a little more than 20 years. He is the youngest blacksmith in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond. He likes the challenge of forging and designing new artefacts, decorations for fences, and different handles for furniture. But, at the same time, he also deals with the traditional parts of blacksmithing, such as sharpening tools (hoes, scythes), knives, repairing tools and the like.

The blacksmith’s workshop is located on the ground floor of the family house where he lives. In addition to the blacksmith’s hearth that he has in the workshop, Miran also has a mobile ‘blacksmith’s fire,’ which he is very happy to use for organizing open-air blacksmith workshops and, when necessary, for some of the local cultural and historical events.

Everything starts with fire—lighting the blacksmith’s fire. In it, the selected steel is heated, then softened and processed by hammering with different types of hammers, i.e., the forging process takes place. Forging is not an easy craft, but quite physically demanding. The process of heating and forging happens cyclically until the object is made in the desired form. After that, the object is quenched and rapidly cooled in water or oil, depending on the blacksmith’s choice and need. Often, it’s water. Next is the grinding, polishing and sharpening of the object (in the case of a knife, saber, or sword).

Best-selling products are metal souvenirs such as flowers or grapes, replicas of medieval shields, decorative handles, forged fences or forged details on fences, sabers, swords, forged furniture, forged balcony railings, axes, and grab axes. All blacksmithing requirements in terms of sharpening, repairing, and any kind of docking are also offered.