My New Hammer

I have always been interested in working with metal and had even made a couple metal sculptures but nothing ever really serious or focused. A little over 6 years ago I received a book about blacksmithing as a birthday present from my parents. As I was reading through it I began to think that this was something I would like to try. As I do with most things I am interested in, I began to research it. Looking online for blacksmithing websites and checking out the library and of course I ended up on YouTube.
As a research tool, YouTube is almost priceless. It allows me to access practical information regarding almost any subject I’m looking for. I began surfing through the pages and pages of videos from all over the world covering all kinds of things related to the topic I was interested in. I began to notice that two names kept popping up. One of the names was GaryHuston and the other was TechnicusJoe. I began watching and re-watching various videos these guys posted and I learned quite a bit. I sort of considered myself as their unofficial intercontinental apprentice.
Time went on and I joined a blacksmithing page on Facebook. One day I see that TechnicusJoe has joined this same page! I was jazzed so I sent him a friend request which he accepted. He then sent me a message saying hello! I will fully admit to being a little star struck. Here is a person, who lives in The Netherlands, whose channel I’ve been studying for years and has thousands of views sending me a message! I had to fight to contain myself. We chatted briefly and time moved on.
Recently, Joe’s YouTube channel hit 1 million views and he posted a video on the subject of raising money in order to continue to make videos and support himself. I sent him a message asking if he would consider commissioned work. I saw he had made a couple hammers and I was interested in maybe having him make me a 2.5 lbs. cross-peen. He replied saying that he could make me a hammer but that it would be very expensive and the cost of shipping would be high considering it was coming from The Netherlands.
I had previously priced out hand-forged hammers so I knew what to expect. We talked back and forth and negotiated a deal that worked out for both of us. He even offered to make a video of him making my hammer! I said I would do an honest video review of his hammer in turn. Here are those videos.


Joe Making My Hammer


Some pictures Joe sent me of my hammer being made

Footage of me using my hammer for the first time




My Review of the hammer Joe made me




As I said in my review video, Working with Joe on this was a wonderful experience. He was very accommodating and asked a variety of questions so that he could make me the best hammer possible. If you’re in the market for a custom made hammer that will last a lifetime and out-perform ANYTHING found in the stores, contact Joe HERE.

2015 update and goals

Happy 2015 Friends!

I thought I’d update everyone on how things are going at Fox River Forge. We are moved into our final location! We have returned to Big Bend and now reside in a garage a short distance from where we first started. In truth, I had wanted to set up in this location all along but I needed to work out the details a little more than I had at the time. Since then I have been out there working on things, building skills and working out the layout of the shop. It still needs some work but it is functional and I feel a real connection with the building we’re in. I will put together a post dedicated to the new shop location. I expect there will be an accompanying video as well.

In this post I want to lay out some goals for 2015. I’m in a place where I believe I can personally dedicate more focus on the forge. I would like to establish some items I want to accomplish this year and then at the end of the year we can review and see how we did. So here are5 things I want to accomplish by December 2015.

1. Do an off-site blacksmithing demo for a public group. This will involve loading my gear, going somewhere, setting up a portable smithy and working with people who have had little if any experience with this craft.

2. Continue to create items at the home location that will eventually be available for purchase. I’d like to have a surplus of wall hooks, bottle openers, corkscrews and other items available to anyone interested in purchasing something like this.

3. Become confident in the task of forge-welding. I see this as an essential skill I will need in order to really grasp the fundamentals of this craft. I have made 3 successful welds so far. I would like to refine the quality and appearance of my welds.

4. I would like to start offering individual blacksmithing classes. These would be a 4 to 6 hour session with an overview of the blacksmithing trade and hands-on experience leading to the student crafting their own piece to take with them.

5. Possibly open an Etsy store. This will depend almost 100% on how goal #2 works out. I briefly looked into it recently and it was enough to confirm my guess that I am not at all ready for one right now.

So there it is, my 2015 goal for Fox River Forge. Here are some photos of items I have made in the past few months.

Skill Set Breakthrough!

Greetings everyone!  Things have been moving along here Fox River Forge. We will be moving, yet again, in the near future to our final location but in the meantime I have been able to put hammer to steel a little more regularly. 

I recently achieved a very important personal goal I set; forge welding. This is exactly what it sounds like. I was able to weld two pieces of metal by heating the metal to near its melting point and hammering it together to form one piece. 

The first weld I achieved was some flat stock I bent into a ring and welted the ends together.  After that success,  I decided to try it again with the purpose of making two connected rings. 

Success was sweet. They aren't very pretty and I think the integrity of the weld may be low to moderately decent, what I learned about the process from these successes was immense. I'm very proud of this. I will be working on this skill more in the future. It is a very important skill for a blacksmith to have. 

A lamp for Kim.

Greetings friends. Long time, no word. I apologize for that. Things have been kinda crazy for me both with the forge and outside the forge but that's a story for another time. This post is about my very first lamp! Late last year I contacted a friend of mine who is a potter about making me several coffee mugs. After some discussion we worked out a work in trade where she would make the mugs and I would make her something at the forge. After some brainstorming we settled on a desk lamp. She wanted it to be completely original and of my own design and wanted no input on it what-so-ever so it would be a surprise. The only thing I made her decide on was if it was going to be painted or raw. She chose painted. Here are some pictures of the process.

Once it was finished, I went looking and found a lamp shade took it home and made a video.A video I made once I put a bulb in it and put the shade on it can be watched HERE.

What's up with the forge??

It has been way too long since I posted here. Life has a way of getting in the way. Anyway, I thought I would bring everyone up to speed on events here at the forge. I stated in the last post that we were remodeling the smithy in order to have an indoor workshop. Those plans are still in effect but various details including site location have changed dramatically. We were originally going to build a small enclosed smithy on the site where the forge was located. Before doing this I wanted to get permission from the land owner so as to not step on anyone’s toes. It soon transpired that there was some dispute as to who actually owned that piece of land. One owner was the person who lives right next to the spot. He would regularly visit me while I was working. The other potential owner was a Farmer who lives up the road from the location and owns the surrounding fields. I diplomatically got permission from both parties and began acquiring materials. I was working with a good friend and co-worker named Steve. I know what I wanted but it was Steve that came up with the design and even donated some material in addition to his time and knowledge. We began building the day after Thanksgiving 2012 and after several weekends in the cold and rain and snow we were ¾ of the way done when one of the owners contacted me and told me I had to take it down for tax and insurance reasons. We were crushed. All that effort and money was going to be wasted. The other land owner in question found out and immediately began researching where his property line ended and eventually discovered that it ended about 10 feet from one of the walls of our shop. There was no other recourse. It took weeks before I could even go down to the site and look at it. I told Steve we had to take it down and a few days later he came to me and said after discussing it with his wife, he would like to offer space on his property to set up the smithy. It wouldn’t be as big but it would eventually be enclosed. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and accepted. While we were building the smithy, I was also helping him remodel the other half of the duplex he owns as a “work in trade” sort of deal. His Mother had been living there but has suffered a bad fall and required an assisted living environment. He offered the opportunity for me to rent it and I jumped at the chance. Not only was this a massive upgrade in living quarters, it would allow me access to the smithy at any time. I moved the hearth and other vital supplies over to the location Steve set aside for me and set it up. He also had someone at work draw up and burn a sign for the forge out of some steel so we put that up as well.

Yesterday, we finally went out to the old site and tore down the building. I will clean up the site and salvage what I can. It’s been a long frustrating year but I have been able to do some things. I built a prototype paper towel rack.

I did an artistic modification to a machete for a costume.

And I made a snake out of a small spike.

I look forward to increasing the production from FRF. I will be sure to keep you all in the loop.

Happy New Year!!

Well it’s 2013 and everyone here at Fox River Forge is looking forward to some very exciting things in the next few months! Followers of our FaceBook page know that we began a major overhaul of the smithy near the end of November. Andy and I have been working with one of my friends and coworkers named Steve to bring F.R.F. inside! Progress has been great. There will be a full post including a video of the remodel as soon as we are up and smoking again. I’ve said on many occasions that I am learning blacksmithing buy taking online courses at The University of YouTube – Waukesha and that the two main Masters I am apprenticing under are both from different countries. So with the New Year upon us I thought I would give credit to these two individuals who have taught and inspired me. The first Master is a Canadian gentleman based in Nova Scotia named Dan Brazzell. His was the first blacksmithing video I saw when I typed “Blacksmith” in the search engine. This one here. I get a kick out of him and his work is great. He has many useful “how-to” videos worth checking out on his channel in addition to some of the more entertaining ones. Check out his website(http://www.modernblacksmith.com/). The second Master and the one that has really been responsible for me learning the most is a young man from the Netherlands who goes by the handle TechnicusJoe. I was referred to him by some other video I was watching and now I regularly watch his videos, often more than once. Listening to this guy explain what he was doing and watching him work has help a great deal. He is exceptionally knowledgeable considering the fact he just turned 17! In this video he explains the process of thinning and stretching out metal called “drawing out”. There have been many videos I have watched and many hours spent reading both internet articles and books as I learn these skills but I credit these two guys the most both for encouragement and education. I will keep you posted on events as they occur but until then I hope you have a great New Year!

Fire It Up!!!

Greetings Friends! It’s been a while since I made any noise here and the forge has been cold for way too long. I have been busy at my “9 to 5” during the week being a proper, contributing member of society. I have also been working at a haunted attraction during the month of October which is what ate up all my weekends. I don’t mind because I LOVE working at The Haunted Woods every year and I’m already looking forward to doing it next year!! While I haven’t been putting hammer to iron, I’ve still been working on some ideas for the forge and I want to take this time to make a formal and exciting announcement. In late November, Fox River Forge will undergo an extensive remodeling and we will emerge as a completely enclosed smithy! I have been talking with a friend and colleague named Steve Baker and he has generously offered to help get us out from under the tarp! He is further aiding in our growth by donating lumber to the project which helped save us well over $1000. Add to this that Steve is a gifted carpenter who has his OWN sawmill who shares a lot of the same values and interests in hand-crafted work as I do. Steve and I both work at the same company and for a while we worked together on 3rd shift in the service department. I credit Steve with my learning to weld in the first place. His generosity is stunning and Fox River Forge will be indebted to him for a very long time. We made the first step in this project today. I grabbed the trailer and met him at his house where we loaded his truck and my trailer up with the lumber we will be using for the floor, roof and some of the walls. He also hooked us up with a wood-burning stove so we can work comfortably this winter!!! Over the next couple of weeks, I will acquire some other supplies so that when building day comes we can move through it without having to stop and run for parts all the time. I’ve very excited to see how this turns out. I will of course be documenting everything and a video with be forthcoming. Until then, I wish my hunter friends good luck and safety with the coming weeks and a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!!