Residents from southwestern Saskatchewan gathered at Doc's Town this past weekend to learn more about an age-old trade.

The 'Blacksmith's Hammer In' event that's held annually gives metalsmiths a chance to create various objects from wrought iron, while also sharing knowledge about the ancient craft with visitors.

"We're very fortunate in the fact that Doc's Town is a museum and we're able to use the artefacts in there," said Doc's Town blacksmith Steve Philp. "Kind of what we do here is let the younger people get a chance to get a feel or taste for blacksmithing and see if it's something they want to pursue."

The Bill Ball Blacksmithing Shop located inside of Swift Current's Kinetic Exhibition Park was moved to the city in 1981 from Valjean, Saskatchewan. The shop still contains a majority of its original equipment from when the shop was in service in 1914-1958, and today the shop remains as one of only a few blacksmith shops in Saskatchewan that is original and functioning.

Philp was drawn to the trade, in large part because his grandfather ran a blacksmith shop in Swift Current from the mid-1940's until the early 1970's.

"Part of why I got into it is because blacksmithing is kind of in my heritage," Philp explained. "It was just something I was interested in as it was iron work. Then I met a good friend of mine Mike Dickie from Pennant, and he had been doing a little bit of blacksmithing to start with - we got together and it went from there."

Philp began blacksmithing at the Bill Ball Blacksmithing Shop in 1992 and firmly believes the craft isn't dying.

"It's not dying because there are quite a few people that are actually blacksmithing," he added. "I think that the show 'Forged in Fire', although it's a knife making show, helped gain some interest in blacksmithing because they do use fire and iron and make knives that way, giving blacksmithing more expose that way."

He attended the Western Development Museum's blacksmith course in Saskatoon in 1991 and sees no end in sight for one of his hobbies.

"I enjoy it as a pastime and it's just a hobby for me, it's not something I think even remotely about making money at," Philp told Swift Current Online. "As long as I'm able to do it, I will continue doing it."