John Switzer
Beulah, Colorado
My first exposure to blacksmithing was in Junior High shop class where we all made a simple cold chisel. Later, in High School,I took metal shop and found myself drawn to the forge and anvilmuch more than the machine tools or welders. Even though the shop teacher knew little about forging, I was given the freedom to figure it out for myself. Oddly, I was never really interested in wood shop classes.
In 1983 I discovered a show on PBS called The Woodwright’s shop. Hosted by Roy Underhill, this show was about traditional hand tool woodworking. I was intrigued by this type of woodworking but had no idea where to locate old tools such as axes, froes, chisels and planes. In Roy’s book by the same name he had a short chapter on blacksmithing that explained how to forge some of these tools. With my very limited prior experiences I thought I could manage to make my own tools.
My blacksmithing journey carried me along a different path than that of just making my own woodworking tools. For many years I specialized in making camp goods for reenactors. I have slowly been shifting away from the camp iron and have been doing more and more work for woodworkers, particularly hardware such as hinges and chest handles. I am now finally making woodworking tools on a regular basis. I have never found that architectural iron appealed to me much so I am very pleased with the direction my work is heading.
Our little shop in Beulah is currently a part time business. I hope to retire from my real job in the not too distant future and run the shop as more of a full time business.
My demonstration will focus on the forging of an axe.