Metal craft is perhaps the single most important craft in terms of the number of artisans engaged in its practice as in its close links with the daily lives of the people of the State. The craft is practiced by the people of the Kansari caste who can be broadly described as metalsmiths while a particular variety, dhokra, is practiced mainly by sithulias. The largest concentration of the former is Kantilo and Balakati in Puri district although fairly substantial numbers are found in Cuttack, Ganjam and Sambalpur districts.
The products of this handicraft can be broadly classified into three groups-items produced through process of beating, locally known as pifa, those produced by casting and the third group would include the residual items. These can also be broadly subdivided into two groups in terms of raw materials used, this is, brass and bell metal, the former being an alloy of copper and zinc and the latter of copper and tin.
The workshop is called sala or shed and consists of a platform with a block of stone for the floor on which the beating is done, a heating furnace or bhati, a raised verandah with a local lathe for polishing. Tools used are hammers and anvils, pincers, hand drills, files and scrapers. The heating furnace with a crucible is fanned by a blower with leather bellows although of late the craftsmen have started using mechanical blowers.