Introduction

Shipbuilding flourished in the coastal area of Ostrobothnia in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. Coastal shipbuilders needed various iron products, which they bought mainly from Central Ostrobothnian peasants who manufactured iron. People in the villages of Central Ostrobothnia worked hard producing iron and forging it into nails, utensils and anchors. Iron industry products were also exported as far as Stockholm.

The mother parish Suur-Lohtaja, to which Toholampi also belonged, was an active iron production area. In the 1600s, it was a regional centre of the anchor industry. Since the 1680s, the parish seal of Lohtaja featured the image of a bloomery and a sledgehammer, based on which Gustaf von Numers designed the coat of arms of Lohtaja at the beginning of the 1950s.

The phosphoric iron ore lifted from bogs was fragile but toughened in the hammer mill enough to serve as anchor material. In any case, unfortunate iron deals sometimes brought people to the courthouse. For example, in 1649 a Kokkola townsman complained having been sold an anchor forged from low-quality iron. The court ordered that a proper anchor be forged to replace the worthless anchor or the money be refunded to the buyer. Fragile iron was no good for building edge tools, in particular. The bourgeoisie of Ostrobothnian coastal towns used to have nails and utensils made in Lohtaja from bar iron purchased elsewhere because of possibly better iron quality.

Lake iron ore was also used to produce iron. One mainly needed a shovel and a hoe to collect bog iron ore, while lake iron ore was lifted using a large scoop that had holes in its bottom, through which the water drained. Pre-calcined ore was transported to bloomeries for the actual smelting. There the ore containing iron oxide was smelted by burning wood coal received from tar-burning pits, and firewood was needed as well. Heat was kept at a suitable level by blowing air into the furnace with manual or water-powered bellows. This allowed for the reduction of the iron ore into iron, which then sank to the bottom of the furnace. The rock material in the ore was lighter and remained on the surface. Then the crude iron was collected from the bottom and hammered in the smithy either manually or with waterpower. The winter was a good time for forging the iron into utensils.

Bloomeries, just like tar-burning pits, had to be built very carefully. In building a bloomery, certain kinds of tools were needed, as well as clay plaster, sand, heat-resistant grey stone, and bellows made of horse or ox skin.

The heyday of the iron industry in Suur-Lohtaja was in the late 1600s and early 1700s. During the Great Northern War, in the early 1700s, the Russians destroyed several hammer mills, many of which were not rebuilt after the war. Particularly in the latter part of the 1700s, the iron industry declined in the region, even though there were attempts to revitalise it later. Local iron production and forging seem to have been preserved longest in Toholampi, where the ironworks of Määttälä operated until the early 1800s.

In the context of iron culture, one should not forget the professional blacksmiths who used to come to the village smithies of Toholampi to forge more demanding utensils, such as scythes. They used to tour around the smithies once year, forging everything the households needed for the coming year. A blacksmith usually brought along his own forge and anvil, and the houses provided him with iron, steel and tools. In addition to being paid for their work, the blacksmiths were taken good care of in the houses. “When the blacksmith left the village, the lady of each house eagerly brought him homemade squeaky cheese (leipäjuusto) and a thick loaf. The blacksmith carefully checked whose offerings met the highest standards” (Anttila 1978, 133). Sakri Järvenoja and Leander Nisula, as well as a student of the latter, Matti Talviainen, were well-known blacksmiths in Toholampi.

The Toholampi Artisan Institute, founded in 1960, provided silversmith training for a long time. The institute was closed down in the 2010s because of the cutbacks and centralisation of vocational education. Traditional blacksmith skills are still kept alive in Toholampi by, for example, the master blacksmith Ari Haapamäki and his son, the silversmith Mauri Haapamäki.

Master blacksmith Ari Haapamäki in his workshop in summer 2018

Silversmith Mauri Haapamäki’s tools, summer 2018