The forging technique of Tancheng Honglu Knife Workshop is commonly known as blacksmithing. It is a traditional folk craft that heats iron, steel and other metals to a certain temperature and then repeatedly hammers them into tools. It is mainly distributed in Liumengzhuang Village, Chongfang Town, Tancheng County, and is also distributed in other towns and villages. The Honglu Knife Workshop Blacksmith Shop began in the late Qing Dynasty. Chen Zongwu learned blacksmithing skills at a young age because of his poor family background. After three years, he became a master and opened a blacksmith shop, mainly producing farming tools and household utensils. He is good at hand-forging steel kitchen knives. Blacksmithing skills require two people to work together. Their partners are basically husband and wife, brothers or father and son. In terms of inheritance, it is basically passed down from father to son. Chen Dengji, the son of Chen Zongwu, inherited the family business and became the second-generation inheritor. He made a living by blacksmithing and learned skills in practice. During the period of the National Anti-Japanese War, the farm tools he made were used as weapons in many places in Tancheng, especially in the Xuweizi Battle in Gangshang Town, Tancheng. The villagers basically used farm tools to fight the enemy. Their weapons came from the Laohonglu Knife Shop in Tancheng County. The third-generation inheritors Chen Yuping and Chen Yumei learned their skills as assistants since childhood and became famous local blacksmiths. After the reform and opening up, China's rural areas have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the blacksmithing industry has made great progress. Chen Shijie and his father Chen Yumei run the Laohonglu Knife Shop Blacksmith Shop to forge various farm tools and daily necessities for the local people. In 2006, the inheritor Chen Shijie moved the blacksmith shop to Hedong District and specialized in the production of various kitchen knives. The forging technique of Tancheng Honglu Knife Workshop is complex. It is made into a prototype through heating, hammering, cooling, remelting, and hammering again. It is then grooving, shaping, grinding, quenching and other processes, and it is hammered and tempered until it is formed. The main products include agricultural iron tools such as axes, planers, adzes, chisels, rakes, hoes, sickles, shovels, plow shafts, plow level nests, guillotines, machetes, etc., and daily iron tools such as kitchen knives, scissors, and blade knives. Iron farm tools play a vital role in agricultural production. With the popularization of agricultural mechanization, the prosperous scene of Tancheng iron forging skills, which made a living by forging iron, has gradually lost its former glory and is facing the dilemma of lack of successors. At present, the Tancheng iron forging skills are represented by Chen Shijie's Laohonglu Knife Workshop, which still adheres to the skills, uses traditional skills to serve the people's production and life, and is committed to inheriting and developing the skills. Like many traditional handicrafts, the forging skills of the Tancheng Honglu Knife Workshop have been eliminated by history due to the changes of the times. It will become a cultural symbol or cultural memory waiting to be awakened again. Inheriting, excavating and protecting the Tancheng iron forging skills will play a positive role in promoting traditional skills, promoting rural revitalization, and enriching and developing rural industries. In 2020, the Tancheng Honglu Knife Workshop forging skills were included in the sixth batch of representative projects of Linyi's municipal intangible cultural heritage. Information source: Shaoxing Cultural Center (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) Information source: Shaoxing Cultural Center (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)