The sounds pouring out of the W.A. Young and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop in Rices Landing on Saturday will be a chorus of anvils.

"We should have a minimum of 60 to 80 blacksmiths attend our annual 'Hammer-In,' " said John Steel, president of the Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmith Association.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. artisans will create everything from ornamental hooks to trivets to elements for railings, doors and gates.

George Blystone, caretaker of the foundry, will operate antique machinery left behind intact when the owners closed the doors in 1969. He will talk about the antique lathes, pipe threaders, presses and shapers that are still operational.

The Young family enterprise began in 1900 with a machine shop in Rices Landing, according to Mr. Blystone. Mr. Young, a pattern maker of parts for paddle-wheelers, coal mine equipment and other industrial machinery, later added a forging area to the two-story building. The foundry came along in 1930 and was used to cast gears, wheels and grating for riverboat boilers.

Around 1972, George Kelly, a Waynesburg mechanic, and Farley Toothman, now a Greene County judge, examined the building at the request of the family. "Over a period of years, Kelly reconnected the electricity and got the machinery running again. Everything I learned about the equipment and machinery, I learned from him," Mr. Blystone said.

The foundry and machine shop are now owned by the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, a historic preservation group based in Homestead.

The plan for Saturday is to turn on the equipment after a crowd assembles, except during the blacksmith demonstrations and the public auction, which is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Many blacksmiths will bring wares for the auction. Proceeds go to restore the building.

The building has an old, hand-operated, rope-driven Otis elevator, which is not used. The second floor is not accessible to the disabled, but plans are under way to install a new elevator, retaining the old one for historic interest.

The Rivers of Steel group has been holding town meetings to involve the community in plans. Invitations have gone out to the Greene County commissioners, Greene County Historical Society, Rice's Landing Planning Commission, local officials and members of the Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmith Association.

Details: 724-317-3734.

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