Short answers, pulled from the story.
A metalsmith, or simply a smith, is a craftsperson who fashions useful items out of various metals, including tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewelry, armor, and weapons. Smithing involves forging, smelting, founding, and filing. It is one of the oldest metalworking occupations.
A blacksmith works specifically with iron and steel, and the word "smith" used alone almost always refers to a blacksmith. Other smiths specialize by metal or product: a goldsmith works with gold, a silversmith with silver, a coppersmith with copper, and a bladesmith with knives and swords.
Smiths held high or special social standing in pre-industrialized times because they supplied the metal tools needed for farming, especially the plough, and the weapons required for warfare. Communities depended on smiths for both agricultural productivity and military readiness.
Smith is an occupational surname derived from the metalworking trade. Its equivalents appear in many languages: Schmidt or Schmied in German, Ferreiro or Ferreira in Portuguese, Lefèvre in French, Herrero in Spanish, Fabbri, Ferrari, or Ferrero in Italian, and Koval in Ukrainian.
A forge, also called a smithy, is a furnace designed to allow compressed air forced through a bellows to superheat the interior, enabling melting, soldering, and annealing of metals. Blacksmiths still use the forge today in essentially the same way it was used traditionally.
Many universities offer degree programs in metalsmithing, jewelry, enameling, and blacksmithing under the auspices of their fine-arts programs. Jewelers frequently refer to their craft as metalsmithing, and the field is recognized as a fine art alongside other studio disciplines.