Where did they go?

Due to the invention of modern fabrication techniques, blacksmithing has been on a steady decline for over 100 years. If blacksmiths aren't getting commissions for work, or teaching enthusiastic new smiths, blacksmithing is fated to become a hobby and lose the skills that made it special.

I became interested in blacksmithing when I was 15. But I was only able to start blacksmithing at 16, a year later. Finding it was like archeology. In the year it took me to find a blacksmith, I could have relegated it to a truly lost art and forgot about my passion.