Churchkeys & Keychains
These bottle openers start as a single bar of steel. Using traditional hot-forging techniques, I slit and drift the end of the bar, shoulder it, forge a ring, and cut the opener from the end of the bar. This is undertaken over the course a of a few heats, while the steel is glowing a gorgeous orange color (in the neighborhood of a couple thousand degrees.) After it's cut off the longer bar, I shape the handle. Using individual hand-held stamps, I hammer whatever lettering will go into it. The last hot step is to punch the little tongue which makes it all work. After a bit of cleanup and an oil finish, the bottle opener is ready to be gifted to your friends and loved ones.
Railroad Spikes
Forged from a reclaimed railroad spike, it'll open your beer with great ease and style! All of these spikes came into my life during walks along the train tracks. Over time, they work their way out of their rightful place in the ties. Then they just lie there, soaking up the sun and rain, developing a nice coating of rust. After I bring them back to my shop, I heat them up and bang on them for a while. After this rigorous treatment, the remaining rust is completely removed, and leaving us with this amazing texture on the surface of the steel.
Corkscrews
Hammering out the screw itself with enough alacrity that it remains a high-carbon steel is a rewarding challenge. With each additional heating cycle, carbon is cooked out of the steel. This leaves the steel less stiff when cool. By working fast (striking while the iron is hot) and efficiently (never having too many irons in the fire) I can hammer out this long taper, curl it around, and still feel comfortable with the rigidity of the screw.
Hand-forged mild steel handles are riveted to a high carbon steel body, also forged and curled by hand. The rivets shine their brassy nature via the facets left by the hammer.
The piece is finished with a boiled linseed coating. This will allow the tool to take a nice dark patina with time, and protect it reasonably well from rust. As with any raw steel object, care should be taken to avoid the sea, volcanoes, and nuclear war. It's pretty solid in most other circumstances.