My anvil and I go way back.

My anvil has been in my life for longer than I have. My father, who idolized his grandfather, a blacksmith and engineer and jack-of-all-trades, purchased it in 1972 at the Brimfield flea market. I grew up clambering on and around the anvil as it sat unused in a corner of my father's woodshop. Now, some twenty years after taking up blacksmithing as a student at Hampshire College, I have the pleasure to work hot steel almost every day on a tool my father found by chance, more than half a century ago.

The long version:

In 1972 my father bought an anvil at the Brimfield Flea Market (the largest in the world). He was rummaging around and found a Henry Wright anvil from the late nineteenth century. It was the end of the day, though, and the guy selling it was closing up shop. He set his alarm and was there at 5 o’clock the next morning to buy it. That anvil was always in the basement, tucked into a corner of my dad’s wood shop. I had a magnetic attraction to this tool as a child. I would sit and hold it, studying its angles and weight, climb on it, try to move it, sometimes straighten nails on it.

My great-grandfather was a blacksmith, among many other things. My father idolized him as a maker and doer, and spoke often of his incredible craftsmanship. In the 6th grade I wrote the longest paper of my pre-college life, all about blacksmithing. While a student at Hampshire College, I discovered I could do a blacksmithing project to cover a requirement. I jumped at the chance. Donald Dupuis, a hobbyist blacksmith, incredible woodworker, and top-rate machinist, taught me my first moves, and became my lifelong mentor and friend. Blacksmithing quickly became the focus of my college studies. I graduated from Hampshire with a focus in Historical Blacksmithing in 2002. I was the only person in my class to land a job in my field immediately upon graduation. I’m sure my co-graduates are all now doing amazing things as well.

I journeyed off to work with accomplished blacksmiths in Wyoming, Brooklyn, Reykjavik and San Francisco over the next few years, coming back to my alma mater to teach blacksmithing classes along the way. My first solo gig was to make several thousand nails for Fort Ticonderoga. Definitely got plenty of hammer practice on that job. Not long after, I was commissioned to make a series of bottle openers. Thus began my explorations into making custom openers. Some forty thousand pieces later, they’re still a regular part of my business. They come with a two generation guarantee mostly because I can’t promise that I’ll be around much longer than that.

I’m now the proud co-owner of the Walkaway House in North Adams, Massachusetts. Along with Carolyn Clayton, my extraordinary and talented life partner, we are forging an artist residency program, community living adventure, and aesthetic delight.