The Rural Voice, 1999-09, Page 29Dave Jantzi
continues the
smithing trade
that disappeared
elsewhere in the
1930s.
When Jantzi started in 1967,
apprenticing at 16, people told him he
couldn't be a blacksmith. "In 10
years, I was so busy I had to have
help," he recalled. Forging all day,
putting a horseshoe in the hearth and
taking one out, Dave Jantzi can shoe
20 or 25 horses. The cost of shoeing
per hoof, is about $9 for a shoe and
$14 for labour.
Blacksmithing as a trade really
met an end in most rural areas
once the 1930s were over.
Cutters and buggies now inhabit
museums, or someone's dusty barn
— except in Amish country where
they are part of everyday life. Yet the
carriage or buggy is attractive for
other people as an interesting or
romantic part of their leisure time.
"People want to try a horse and
buggy for their Sunday afternoon
rides," Solomon Jantzi remarked.
"They're tired of horseback riding."
His carriage services gets outside
orders for weddings where people
can pretend there is just themselves
against the world for a short time.
Travelling in a buggy is
reminiscent of an earlier time seen to
tie less hurried and stressful but the
Amish have to make time in their
structured day for extra jobs and
demands they wouldn't usually take
on.
The inside of Solomon Jantzi's
wooden factory buildings is like
stepping back a century, with natural
light flooding the work benches, saws
and equipment run with pulleys and
diesel engines. In business since
1964, Solomon
joked' he's
beating the
interested clients
off, most of them
referred by
tthers.
In buggy repair,
the parts most
often needed are
seats and wheels.
A new set of
wheels, 36 or 40 -
inch, costs about
$500. Solomon
sews the upholst-
ery, velvets or
vinyl. His son
Douglas turns the
hubs of
hardwood, then
he pounds the
new wooden spokes into the notches
made between metal bracings.
Solomon builds wagons, two -
wheeled carts for full size horses or
miniature horses, buggies, or the vis-
a-vis carriages with three seats, with
the back two seats face-to-face.
Tops, lamps, steps, whip sockets,
hardware and springs are
manufactured locally. The buy
body is built of hardwoods. basswood
or white ash, and new floorboards are
cut to replace the old. In the late fall,
cutters are prepared for the snow
drifts.
When the Amish are using a
horse and buggy daily, they
have to watch out for
passing snowplows, speeding trucks
and motorists making a horse skittish.
Being passed too close and too fast
by a large speeding vehicle is only
one of the dangers they have to cope
with every day. People in this
community try not to be interfered
with or encroached on, leading a
seemingly separate existence.
Although these trades are thriving,
it's a hard lifestyle. The young
people, subject to pressures
especially if they've been out
working or exploring in a van, car or
truck, might not be able to carry on in
the same way their parents and
grandparents have.
For the Amish-, a calm ordered
lifestyle without change is one tilled
with fear of more dangers being
created every day then ever used to
exist.0
SEED & GRAIN
CLEANING SERVICES
It's the time of year to plant fall crops
• Stop in or call for prices on custom cleaning and
treating your own seed
• V'itaflo 280 and Dividend XL seed treatments available
• Call for prices for Rye and Triticale seed
• Bags, totes and bulk available for both seed and feed orders
Dealer inquiries welcome
BRANT QUALITY SEEDS INC.
Cty. Rd. 10 N. of Hanover
Phone: 519-364-1525 Fax: 519-364-3835
SEPTEMBER 1999 25