»Thousandman« – a blacksmith who makes thousand nails a day

Blacksmiths worked in spike forges (vigenjc). There were over fifty of these workshops in Železniki. Each had at least one furnace with several anvils around it. Masters and their assistants worked with anvils. They made nails of various sizes; thus, the number of nails made daily also varied. The most skilful blacksmiths were called “thousandmen” (tavžentar) because they supposedly made thousand nails in one working day. Working models in the Železniki Museum will demonstrate you how work in such a forge looked like.