As well as being a cheese maturing centre with its cellars, the hamlet of La Tzintre also saw the development of other activities linked to the passage of the herdsmen from the 1870s onwards: the Villermaulaz bakery-grocery, the Auberge des XIX Cantons at Philibert's and the blacksmith's shop run by Canisius and Athanase Roos. This hub of activity enabled the herdsmen and mountain keepers to deliver cheese to the cellars, do their shopping, shoe horses and mules, not forgetting to spend a convivial moment at the Auberge des XIX Cantons before returning to the mountain pastures.

From the 1870s onwards, the forge was run by blacksmiths Jacob Kaisermann (1868), Louis Jolliet (between 1906 and 1917), Canisius Roos (1919-1953) and Athanase Roos (1953-1998). From 1920 onwards, La Tzintre benefited from an electrical connection that enabled the forge to be equipped with a drive shaft linked to various machines by leather belts. The use of grindstones, threading machines, power saws, pillar drills and drop hammers was made easier by the electric motor, which allowed the forge to expand.

Thanks to Frédy Roos, heir to the last blacksmiths, the forge has retained its character as a craft workshop as it was in the years 1919-1930.

The Friends of the Old Forge of Charmey association was set up in 2015 to keep alive this precious witness to the valley's rural development. It organises visits, courses and events, and looks after the exhibition in the adjoining barn.