Field notes, technique deep-dives, and stories from the shop floor — written by the smiths, for the curious. Discover how a billet of steel becomes a lantern, a gate, a tool that outlasts its maker.
Twenty-eight years at the anvil, and I still think about the first strike every morning. This piece breaks down the geometry, breath, and rhythm of a clean hammer blow — and why the difference between a good piece and a great one almost always lives in the first three inches of swing.
Read the full essayHonest writing about the work — the wins, the weld failures, the commissions that taught us something. New entries every other Tuesday.
A short, opinionated guide to quench media — including the three situations where water still beats oil, and the one mistake that cracks more blades than any other.
The three tests we run on every shipment of stock before it touches a forge. None require a lab — just a practiced ear, a steady hand, and a grinding wheel.
A commission diary: design revisions, a failed forge weld, a client who changed their mind twice — and the finished iron-and-walnut driveway gate we delivered last spring.
Power, ventilation, quenching stations, and the one corner we keep clear for emergencies. A walkthrough of the shop's physical flow — and the small frictions that taught us to rearrange it twice.
Reclaimed wrought iron behaves nothing like modern mild stock — and that's exactly the point. A short history of puddled iron, the buildings we pull it from, and the pieces it loves to make.
Five recurring threads run through the journal — pick one and pull.