Keeping the "fire" alive for Da Sy blacksmithing

Traditional profession in danger of extinction

Nestled on the banks of the Nhue River, Da Sy village in Kien Hung ward, Ha Dong district welcomed us with the distinctive sounds of metal grinding machines and the rhythmic hammering of steel billets. The village is hundreds of years old and is famous for its blacksmithing with typical products such as knives, scissors, iron, steel...

“It’s too noisy in here, let’s go out and have a drink,” said Mr. Le Hieu, the owner of the forge of the same name, after showing us around the production area. Continuing the family’s traditional forging profession from previous generations, according to Mr. Hieu, to create a good quality product requires a lot of effort, going through many stages, first is cutting the iron plates into the shape of the product, then heating them at a very high temperature for forging, then the stage that requires high technology is the process of tempering the steel, cooling and finishing the product.

The blade forging process is carried out by craftsmen of Da Sy village.

Although it is hard and meticulous, the income is not much. In addition, the noise and dust from the production process also significantly affect the health of the households that still stick with the profession. This is also the reason why many people, especially the young generation in the village, are gradually losing their enthusiasm for the profession. "My family mainly makes good quality knives to sell to regular customers. Making high-quality products requires high labor costs, but that also increases the cost of the product and makes it difficult to compete with products from abroad that are cheaper and have better designs," Mr. Hieu mused. According to research, a knife product of Da Sy used for slicing and peeling, medium size and made of stainless steel, costs 250,000-300,000 VND, while many similar knife models from Thailand cost only 70,000-140,000 VND with eye-catching designs and are widely sold on social networking platforms.

Statistics show that the number of blacksmith households in Da Sy has been decreasing in recent years, currently around 800-1,000 households. The main reasons are low income; products are not competitive in design and price compared to imported goods; fake and poor quality goods are still mixed in, affecting the reputation of the craft village. Along with that, small-scale, fragmented, unconnected business activities lead to a situation where everyone does their own thing, cannot create a common brand, and cannot meet the increasing demand of the market.

Planning production area with modern technology

According to Mr. Hoang Van Hung, Vice President of Da Sy Blacksmith Village Association, if you want beautiful and competitive products, you need to invest in technology and modern machinery instead of doing it manually as it is now. Investing in modern machinery by production facilities will help blacksmiths reduce their workload and increase labor productivity; products will be more evenly finished and have better designs than when done by hand, thereby helping to reduce product costs and increase competitiveness in the market.

Tourists experience the blacksmithing profession in Da Sy village.

However, to invest in a synchronous and modern machinery system, a large enough space is needed. Pointing to the yard around the house with an area of ​​over 50 square meters but only enough to display 1-2 forging machines, the rest are for household items, Mr. Hung said that most households in the village take advantage of the yard in the residential area to make a production workshop. This makes the production scale small and directly affects people's health due to smoke, dust, and noise during the production process. Therefore, according to Vice President of the Da Sy Blacksmith Village Association Hoang Van Hung, it is necessary to have a master plan for a concentrated production area so that businesses have a large enough area to invest in synchronous equipment, and have an open space to promote and introduce products; at the same time, it is far from residential areas to limit the impact on the health of villagers, as well as reduce the impact on the surrounding environment.

After having a concentrated production site with modern machinery, there needs to be a consumer market. To expand the market, production households in Da Sy need to strengthen business links and find outlets for their products; coordinate with authorities in creating copyrighted brands as well as having measures to detect and eliminate counterfeit and poor quality goods, creating prestige for the Da Sy craft village brand. In addition, production facilities need to proactively learn and take advantage of the strengths of social networks to promote craft village products to domestic and foreign consumers.

Faced with the economic potential of craft villages, Hanoi City has issued a Master Plan for the development of craft villages in the city for the period 2025-2030, with a vision to 2050. However, in order for consumers to trust and choose, in addition to synchronously implementing solutions, products from Da Sy forging village as well as other craft villages in the capital must focus on maintaining the quality as innate tradition, affirming the reputation of the craft village, only then can they find a solid foothold in the market in the current context.

According to People's Army

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/giu-lua-cho-nghe-ren-da-sy-a417810.html