ElementFe is my trade name for the Guemes Island blacksmith shop; designing, forging, and building handcrafted forged steel and iron furniture, gates, railings, candlesticks, spoons, kitchenware and all manner of repair and fabrication.

Thursday, December 31, 2009



For New Year's Eve celebrations, here are a couple of big (three feet across!) commercial soup pots getting made into fire cauldrons.
Only one got decorated, welding game called because of rain!
One goes to the Guemes Island store, one to the store owners' family home.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009






Here's a tool commissioned by a neighbor on Guemes.
A sickle for cutting the bushes that grow so enthusiastically around here, the original was beautifully forged long ago by a local logger/blacksmith/wild-man.
In hopes of a simpler, more rugged attachment, I drilled and bolted the tangs to an axe handle- Phil was thrilled, and the recipient of the gift, I'm sure, thought that it looked like a lot of backbreaking work was coming his way...since there's no way to dodge it, why not use a tool forged with love?
Both the original and my reproduction were forged from automotive leaf springs, hammered out to the proper thickness, split, flattened, and ground to a robust and mean edge.



Here's a knife that sold right away- a christmas gift for a retired gentleman who at 71 was still playing goaltender for our hockey group...quite well, I might add.
The blade is made from a worn out chain saw chain, heated screaming hot and hammered into a billet.
Handle is African brown Ebony. About 9" overall.