Boy T. Harjanto

The heat from the afternoon sun halted my stroll through the crowd at the side of the highway connecting Yogyakarta and the city of Surakarta in Central Java.

At a traditional market named Plumbon in Klaten merchants and shoppers could be seen engaging in transactions or simply browsing the displayed items.

At the east corner of the market were two forges in which the blacksmiths were noisily working on traditional agricultural and kitchen tools such as knives, axes, sickles and hoes amid the flames from the searing piles of charcoal.

One of the blacksmiths, Asmorojati, has been working there since 2005 after finishing vocational school, continuing the business started in 1968 by his father whose name, Karno, is still on the sign over the forge. [kes]