This week on Reactions we head to Portland, Oregon, and learn how blacksmithing is just as much chemistry as it is an artform.

FIRES BURN AND sparks fly beneath the West Seattle Bridge in South Seattle. Ears ring with the metallic crashing of hammers into smoldering orange steel. It sounds like a room full of Spartan soldiers ...

Hammer away at a piece of iron until your arm feels like lead. Grasp a length of red-hot metal that could be fresh from Mount Etna. Stand at a fiery forge and shed sweat by the gallon. Who wouldn’t ...