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| A worker in the Bàn Mạch blacksmith village makes agricultural tools and household items. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Trọng Lịch |
VĨNH PHÚC — The bustling working atmosphere has created a hubbub that can be heard all over Bàn Mạch blacksmith village.
The village, located in Lý Nhân Commune, Vĩnh Tường District, in the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc, is filled with workers’ laughter, along with the sounds of hammers and saws, and the sparks from the red-hot iron bars shooting up with each beat.
Throughout the village, piles of raw iron and steel, along with newly completed mechanical products, are displayed in rows and aisles in family yards and workshops.
Nguyễn Xuân Toàn, Chairman of the Lý Nhân Commune People's Committee, said that Bàn Mạch Village was recognised as a traditional craft village by the Vĩnh Phúc Provincial People's Committee in 2006.
Every villager is familiar with the sounds of hammers from early morning until evening.
The village currently has 1,041 households with 3,500 people, and more than 680 households are engaged in blacksmithing, attracting 1,440 local workers.
There are also hundreds of workers in the village who are not blacksmiths, but support the trade by providing blanks or driving trucks to transport goods.
The Bàn Mạch blacksmith village also attracts more than 1,000 workers from other localities, mainly neighbouring areas, to work.
At present, the blacksmithing trade in Bàn Mạch is developing rapidly, turning the whole village into a busy, vibrant workshop with diverse products.
According to craftsmen, the period from the end of autumn onwards is the busiest time in Bàn Mạch, as every household and workshop works day and night to meet orders for the last months of the year, especially for Tết.
Demand for goods always increases at this time of year.
The village’s main products today are agricultural production tools and household items such as knives, chisels, hoes, spades, hammers, axes, hinges and sickles, which are consumed across the country and exported to Laos, Cambodia, China and Thailand.
Currently, the blacksmiths’ average income is VNĐ72 million (US$2,800) per person per year.
Skilled workers typically earn around VNĐ1 million ($39) per day.
Households that invest in hammers, stamping machines and other specialised equipment for iron goods production can earn between VNĐ50-70 million ($1,900-2,700) per month per facility.
In particular, families with many employees and large production areas can earn up to hundreds of millions VNĐ per month.
Trần Hùng Mạnh, Deputy Chairman of the Lý Nhân Commune People's Committee, said that in order to increase productivity, many households have recently invested in new machines and equipment.
Now Bàn Mạch Village has more than 300 hammer machines, six rolling mills, 171 punching machines, and hundreds of iron and steel billet heating machines.
Thanks to this equipment, the current capacity for processing forged products is much higher than with traditional manual production, and the work is also less physically demanding.
Every week, dozens of trucks carry blacksmith products from the village to customers.
To keep up with new trends, Bàn Mạch residents have proactively connected with customers by selling on e-commerce platforms and social media such as Tiktok, Shopee and Facebook.
Sales of goods on e-commerce platforms have increased to about 20 per cent of the total sales.
Notably, imported products have flooded into Việt Nam in recent years, yet despite the competitive pressure, Bàn Mạch products continue to hold a good share of the market.
Mạnh said that products processed by traditional methods are valuable because of their strength, durability and the fact that they remain sharper than other materials, including branded products manufactured in some other countries.
Khổng Văn Trọng, a long-time blacksmith, said that blacksmithing was not simply a job but a craft, making him not just a worker, but an artisan.
Being a blacksmith requires good health, manual dexterity, sharp observation skills, and the ability to control the metal's temperature to determine the right moment to forge and temper for the best results.
According to Trọng, there are many good machines for blacksmiths to improve productivity and create beautiful products. However, to make really high-quality sharp products like knives, forging must still be done by hand, using the secrets passed down through generations.
When making good quality knives, scissors and hoes, there are certain processing stages where machines simply cannot replace skilled workers.
To help Bàn Mạch blacksmith village stabilise and develop, organisations and authorities at all levels in Vĩnh Phúc Province have provided favourable conditions for people to learn production techniques. They've also helped households borrow capital and have provided land to expand the scale of manufacturing.
Since last year, Bàn Mạch has been named one of the first 28 villages selected by Vĩnh Phúc Province to develop as a model cultural village, opening up new opportunities for sustainable tourism and socio-economic development. — VNS
