While many people today, when asked what a blacksmith used to do in the olden colonial, or even medieval days, they would likely say to shoe horses.
If you asked them to come up with something else, they would likely to be hard pressed to do so, and likely suggest something like sword making.
Most people likely get that idea, from watching too many movies with swashbuckling sword fights around the blacksmiths shop.
Remember that scene from the first Pirates of the Caribbean? In colonial times, during the settling of North America, the colonial blacksmith was regarded as the most important craftsman of his time.
Nothing got built without a blacksmith, as all the other craftsman relied on the blacksmith to build and maintain all the tools and equipment necessary for their trades.
Carts and buggies were often in need of repair from a blacksmith due to the conditions of the primitive roads they traveled on.
Until the day of the industrial revolution in North America, which took a while to arrive from Europe, blacksmithing was the core foundation to industry in the new world.
The tools used by the highly regarded colonial blacksmith, and his lucky apprentice, weren't all that different than those used by today's hobby blacksmiths.
A forge was of course essentially and quite literally the heart of the shop.
Various hammers, anvils, thongs, punches, chisels, and other holding down tools were all part of the colonial shop.
The process of working with hot metal to take the desired form, has continued unto this day.