Brent Hopper holds an antique blacksmith pan. Hopper received a large collection of old blacksmith tools from his father, Anthony. The hand-made smithing implements were used at the Fortenberry and Son Blacksmith shop on Mill Street in the 1920s. In Gaffney's early days, pioneers had to make most of their items by hand. Some of them even had to make their tools by hand.

Brent Hopper has quite a few examples of the blacksmith tools that helped make Gaffney what it is today.

"These are all hand-made blacksmithing implements," Hopper said. "Some of these tools are so old I don't even know what they were used for. But my father had a bunch of them lying around and now I've gotten them from him. It's pretty amazing how long they've lasted."

The tools, including rudimentary pliers and simple grips, have been around since at least the 1920s. An old photo from downtown Gaffney shows the items being used at a blacksmith shop at Five Points.

"They would take these tongs and beat out the metal with hammers," Hopper explained. "There's one that has a bowl shape on the end of the handles where they could pour the liquid metals into molds. You can see the indentations where they beat out the iron into the right shape. This set was used at a shop across the street from McCraw's Hardware in Five Points. The shop was called Fortenberry and Son."

Brent's dad, Anthony Hopper, had been offered a lot of money for the items. But collecting antiques is something of a family tradition.

"He said he wouldn't sell," Hopper said. "He's got even more stuff in his collection, still."

Fortenberry and Son Blacksmith shop was located on Mill Street and operated, shoeing horses and the like, as late as the 1920s.

The blacksmithing implements aren't the oldest pieces in Hopper's collection. He also proudly displays a post-hole digger that's nothing more than a bent shovel, and an old rake.

"I also like to collect Pepsi Cola items that have something to do with Cherokee County - like this old metal sign that used to be downtown," he said. "And I have this old cash register from a store out near McKowns Mountain. I love antiques. I love keeping this little piece of history and especially those day-to-day things like the blacksmith tools. It's interesting to see how people did what it took to get things done back then."