In Mrkonjic Grad, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), there is a blacksmith shop that is 500 years old. In it, eighty-year-old blacksmith Ahmo Zonic produces everything by hand. He is most renowned for making scythes. He claims that people around the world have heard of him and his work, and records of his workshop, which was established in 1569, can be found in museums. His scythes, he says, are sharper than a razor blade – though some people have doubted this.
One skeptic of the sharpness of Ahmo’s scythe was the United States (U.S.) ambassador. Watching through his office window as the grass was cut with old, hand-forged scythes in BiH, he couldn’t believe it, Ahmo recounts – “he took one to try and was astonished.”
“He swung it, thinking it was dull and poor, and it completely surprised him by cutting so much grass. Then he said, ‘I’m going to visit this man to see who he is and what he does,'” Ahmo recalls, adding that the ambassador did come and took a scythe as a souvenir for President Reagan.
Thus, Ahmo’s hand-forged scythe ended up in the exhibition space of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Many others have also visited Ahmo’s workshop, including nearly all the world’s major television networks.
“North Korea hasn’t, but all the others have come,” he adds.
This was so that the world could see a 500-year-old blacksmith shop where forging continues to this day.
The craft has been passed down through generations of the Zonic family. For Ahmo, the best scythe blacksmith was his grandfather, who worked in a time when tens of thousands were produced. Once highly valued, today they are underestimated.
“The scythe that is forged now, or what was forged before, a farmer would give a sheep and a lamb for it. Now my scythe is worth four kilos of roast meat, a pack of cigarettes, two crates of beer, and two liters of cognac,” Ahmo explains.
In other words, 200 BAM for a process that takes days. In the midst of a heatwave, 80-year-old Ahmo works by the fire. Orders need to be fulfilled. Most of them go to Serbia.
“I also have scythes for competitions. Those are expensive, over 200 euros,” he points out.
Everything he knows, he has passed on to his son and grandson. He is willing, he says, to pass on his knowledge to anyone for free. However, he adds, there are no volunteers.
“Villages have died out, villages have fallen, the youth have left. No one wants to work manually anymore, but don’t forget, whether I’m here or not, the land must be cultivated because the village has always supported the town,” he adds.
There used to be 36 blacksmiths in Mrkonjic Grad – all on the same street. Today, Ahmo is alone. His wish, he says, is for his scythe to be protected, and the street named after his colleagues – Kovacka (Blacksmith Street). He doesn’t want it to be forgotten that in Ahmo’s workshop, among other things, you can find an unpickable lock and the sharpest knife, as old as BiH itself, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
