Hammers ‘N’ Tongs my story

Hi my name is Luke.

I have always been good with my hands, and when I left school I went into traditional Joinery/furniture making and for a few years I made some great things, but the drive the love of the job fell away I was only working part time and my other job (window cleaning) was taking over.

I got into blacksmithing when I received a commission to make a coffee table out of live edge Catspaw Oak and the table needed square tube legs, so I went to the local blacksmith, two weeks later I got the legs but I thought to myself “I could of done that in half a day and saved myself a bit of money” and that was my first steps in becoming a blacksmith.

Now I’m the kind of person that believes that to improve your skills and your knowledge you need to do it yourself.

I could of brought the tools I needed to start but my budget wasn’t that big and like I said “ I like to do it Myself”. So I did a lot of research (watched lot of YouTube videos) and I built my first forge out of an old gas bottle and I haven’t looked back.

As you can see my workshop was very very small but good news it is always expanding and improving.

My business has grown over the years and now I forge knives and garden Railings as well as small things like bottle opener, Fire pokers and ornamental pieces. I’m always designing, learning and forging to create works of art out of metal and sometimes wood.

Only traditional techniques are used at The Forge. All products are hand forged to the highest quality using the best materials available and sometimes recycled materials.

This all started out as a hobby for me, to earn a bit more cash and teach my kids some new skills but now, blacksmithing is the best job to have in life, that gives great satisfaction.