Kovács Zsuzsa: Göcsej Village Museum. Exhibition Guide (Zalaegerszeg, 2008)

Horseshoeing trestle Horseshoeing is the most frequent job of a blacksmith and besides his tools he also used a 'horseshoeing trestle'. This was a sort of stand with its legs apart, made of hardwood. He put the horse's foreleg on it and shaped its hoof before putting on the horseshoe. Preparing the hoof was very important because if the horseshoe is ill-fitting, the animal could go lame and be unable to work. When the shaping was done, the process of shoeing started. Drill Blacksmiths' workshops did not change much in the 20th century either in their outlook or in their equipment. Up to recent decades they worked with their 19th-20th century tools. The mechanization of the traditional handwork processes lead to the appearance of new equipment. In the past they did not use many machines. In this museum workshop there is only one machine, left of the entrance, a hand-operated drill. The master brought this from Budapest in 1917 and he used it mostly for drilling the iron components of the wheels. Blacksmith-Signboard To indicate a profession or a workshop people used signboards. These usually depicted miniatures of the objects produced in that particular workshop or a set of characteristic tools of the given profession. Nothing can symbolise the blacksmith's workshop better than a horseshoe, which has been its symbol ever since and has several good luck superstitions associated with it.