The "black" in "blacksmith" refers to the black fire scale, a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of "smith" is debated, it may come from the old English word "smythe" meaning "to strike" or it may have originated from the Proto-German "smithaz" meaning "skilled worker." Blacksmithing began with the Iron Age, when primitive man first began making tools from iron. The Iron Age began when some primitive person noticed that a certain type of rock yielded iron when heated by the coals of a very hot campfire. It took three thousand years for man to learn the science of metallurgy. Long after man made the first simple tools-the first spear or arrow tips-the craft would require hundreds more years before blacksmiths understood the magnetic properties of iron.
