It depicts three larger-than-life smiths hammering on an anvil. The lead blacksmith is holding a rod of iron on the anvil with his left hand and a small handled sledgehammer in his right hand. The model for this was a brick layer. The facial features are from the poet Arvid Morne.
The other two blacksmiths are using large handled sledge hammers to pound the metal rod. The smith raising the hammer is a self portrait of the young Nylund, while the third smith was modeled on the stone cutter Aku Nuutinen; an important assistant to him.
Strangely enough, rumor has it that if a virgin passes a hammer will hit the anvil. Even stranger is that nobody has can remember hearing it. In the second world war the base was damaged during a bombing and an anvil of a smith still has a hole from the shrapnel.
