Yaşar Yanık, a 53-year-old blacksmith in the Mihalgazi district of northwestern Turkey's Eskişehir, has worked at his forge for 40 years and counting, giving shape to iron like his grandfather before him.
Yanık, who is a married father to four children, first picked up a hammer at the age of 13, learning the ancient profession from his father and grandfather who were also blacksmiths, and he has been at it ever since.
Decades later, he is still just as passionate about his profession and does not intend to stop any time soon.
"My middle son Hakan is also a blacksmith. I haven't been able to move the forge furnace that I set up as a mobile shop for 15 days next to the vegetable market for three years now. I've been working as a blacksmith in Sakarılıca Mahallesi for years. There used to be a lot more work. Now, we don't have as much work as before. I make axes, hoes, pickaxes, rows, taras, onion skewers," Yanık told Anadolu Agency (AA).
"I go to villages and markets and sell what I make. At 8 a.m. in the morning, sometimes at 7 a.m., I come and light the stove. When it gets dark in the evening, I finish my work and go home."
Yanık said that he went to almost every rural neighborhood of Eskişehir and collected old steel and iron objects scattered here and there.
He noted that he also refurbishes the iron products that he collects and those that are brought to him.
"I earn a few pennies by renewing and sharpening the head and handle of old axes. I then hand over the refurbished iron materials to their owners."
Explaining the process of his work, Yanık said: "It takes three to four hours to make an ax from scratch. I soften the iron in the forge. After I cut it, I forge it. I make a handle from one of the cuts. Then I make a head from the other one. After I make the head and the handle, I weld them together. After that, I forge it again from the stove and beat it into an ax shape, then grind it with a spiral."
"No matter how well you make the material, when you do not water the iron well, your mastery is of no use."
Yanık noted that although he had been at his profession for 40 years, there were still things he didn't know.
"Wherever I go, when I hear the sound of the anvil, I follow it without hesitation. I also go to cities such as Bursa and Afyonkarahisar. Where I go, I watch from afar as the master beats the iron with an anvil. I try to learn something new. I will continue blacksmithing as long as I live."
Expressing his sadness about not being able to find an apprentice to pass on the craft, Yanık highlighted that forging objects out of iron is a very enjoyable process.
