forgemaster

Noun

forgemaster (plural forgemasters)

1. A craftsman skilled in forging iron or other metals.
   • An eighteenth-century Marquis de Balleroy was a forgemaster but found local wood too expensive. He exploited the discovery at Littry in 1741 of a vein of coal, and in the nineteenth century up to six hundred men were at work in thirty shafts here.1986, Richard Snailham, Normandy and Brittany: From Le Tréport to St-Nazaire, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, →ISBN, page 136
   • Thus, 1,550 to 1,600 livres of fonte and about three bannes of charcoal (see Glossary) might be delivered to a forgemaster, who was then expected to produce at least 1,000 livres of iron with those materials.1988, Paul Walden Bamford, Privilege and Profit: A Business Family in Eighteenth-Century France, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 100