Characters like Denis Poux, you won't come across two of them. Impossible. It's a joke, a style, a voice, a face. But above all, a passion. 67 years on the clock and not a trace of rust, he is one of the last ironworkers in France. Or rather, blacksmith, a term that he particularly appreciates.
Eyes in the fire
It is in his forge, near Lake Saint-Point, in Montperreux, that he tames the metal with great blows of his hammer. “I’ve always had this taste,” he confides, banging on his 130-kilo anvil. “It’s never over, you’re never stuck. As soon as it is hot, the metal becomes so malleable that you can do whatever you want with it. » Everything changes with the irreducible Denis Poux.
But before beating the material to give it the shape he wants, he heats it until it becomes incandescent. “When the metal is in the forge, you can’t take your eyes off it,” he explains in his gravelly voice. Indeed, otherwise, the room will start to burn like a Bengal fire. Anyway, he loves staring at the flames. That’s what attracted him to the base in the first place: the fire. “In the workshops, it’s always dark, so you can clearly see the color of the metal when you redden it,” he continues. “Forging outside in the sun is not interesting. »
A disappearing profession
Around him, his tools, his most faithful companions, bear the names of instruments of torture. On one side, there is the martyr sheet. On the other, the tailor's swift, two centuries old. “The tools have not evolved much” And Denis Poux knows something about this, since his great-grandfather was already a blacksmith. “When I was a kid, there was a forge in Malbuisson and one in Labergement-Sainte-Marie, so I went there,” he remembers. “Then, I also shoed horses and worked in a company in Pontarlier where I did foundry work. »
Cutlery fashion
In the past, he learned the trade with former ironworkers. Today, at a time when his ancestral knowledge is being passed on, he can only face the painful facts that the blacksmith profession is on the verge of disappearing. “Now, what makes young people want to work is cutlery. They all want to make knives or weapons,” he notes. “In the heyday of the forge, they had staff. There, there are no more. »
However, if he did not succeed in infecting his two daughters, Manu, a friend, got involved in the game six years ago. “I got into it because it makes me want to try it out. I once asked if I could try it and I really like it,” she admits. “Afterwards, it’s physical, huh. I do more detailed things like key rings or smaller objects. » But in Montperreux, one thing is certain: even if the ironworks' forge ends up dying out, those who crossed Denis Poux's path will not soon forget it.
France
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