About Us

     My great great grandfather was a blacksmith.  He passed away long before I was born.  His anvil sat behind my grandfather's shop and for years I remember hammering on it.  I remember shaping welding rods into spear tips.  As a teenager I bought a knife blank and put a handle on it.  I was hooked.  College, a career, and raising a kid put this hobby on hold for a few decades.

     On Easter Sunday 2013 I was walking around behind my grandfather's shop and found a railroad spike that he had picked up somewhere.  My grandfather passed away in February of 1997 so you can imagine how long this spike had been sitting there.  I took it home with me and tossed it on my workbench in the garage. In Summer of 2013 I was cleaning the garage and found the spike again. Looking at it I remembered seeing someone making a knife out of a railroad spike.  I knew about blacksmithing what everyone else knew.  You get a heat source, get your metal hot, and beat the snot out of it.  Something kept gnawing at the back of my mind about making a knife from a railroad spike so I started to read online.   I browsed blacksmithing forums, watched videos on YouTube, and basically read everything I could.

     In July of 2013 I found a video showing a "soup can" forge.  It used a large soup can and a benzomatic torch to make a mini forge. I spent less than $20 and on July 25th, 2013 I built my first propane forge.  It was a dinky little thing, but I made several knives with it.  I was hooked.  Later that year I made my first coal burning forge out of a brake drum.  It worked great, but I had to use it outside so it required clear weather and time to clean up the mess it made.  In March of 2015 I decided it was time to upgrade to something more professional.  I started ordering parts and I built a larger propane forge out of a old propane tank.

     Little by little I continue to upgrade my tools and my shop.  Every new project is a learning experience.  It is my goal to turn this hobby into my retirement career.