Day Trips

The Blacksmith Shop in Bellville showcases 4,000 years of metalworking technology, from hand-operated bellows to electrical arc welding. This is a working blacksmith shop, but the smith is always ready to show visitors around.

"If I talk too much during the day," says Cowboy Szymanski, "then I just have to work late. It happens, and I don't mind a bit."

About a half-dozen years ago, Szymanski visited the county seat of Austin County to give a blacksmithing demonstration at the local heritage festival. Several of the local business leaders of the town were impressed enough to offer Szymanski a deal on the vacant blacksmith shop built in 1891.

Encased under decades of dust and grime in the old building were the essentials of a blacksmithing shop. The brick hearth was still functional, and several worn anvils that were too heavy to carry off were lying around on the battered wooden floor. The pulleys that once connected a steam engine to the metalworking stamps and presses still hung from the ceiling. Szymanski had to make his own bellows to feed oxygen to the fire.

This may be a museum, but it's a workshop first. Amongst the piles of metal and heavy equipment, Szymanski loves to talk about his craft and art. He credits the beginning of his metalworking career to when he was a boy and created his own knight costumes. While making a living as a professional extreme-sport athlete, he began looking for the old blacksmiths to show him the tricks of the trade. For almost 30 years he has chosen the hammer, forge, and anvil as his stock and trade. He worked the festival circuit until the Bellville offer came along.

Szymanski is an artist, not just in metalworking, but also in wood, stained glass, and anything else he applies his talents to. The wooden handles he makes for his knives are as intricate as the blades. He also has made furniture and kitchen utensils and altered surgical tools for a local veterinarian.

If Szymanski has a specialty, it is his Damascus knives. Damascus steel is made by an ancient method of folding hot steel over onto itself to form a hard metal with lines much like wood grain. Picture the strands of a steel cable heated red hot and hammered into a solid piece of steel. "The knife blade has to have strength and flexibility," he says. "It's as much about the aesthetics as it is the functionality."

The Blacksmith Shop, featuring Phenix handmade knives, is at 305 E. Main, two blocks from the county courthouse. Szymanski's living history museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm. He often has the forge fired up in the afternoons and nearly always on Saturdays. For more information, call 713/724-6813 or go to www.phenixknives.com.

970th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips" 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.