Back in the day, I read an article in Backwoodsman about a simple make-shift forge from a brake drum, which thematically included using a piece of rail as an anvil.

Having a pal with a dad in the rail industry (“How much do you need?”) netted out the rail piece, but I never got around to finding a brake drum.    The original forge was itself forged from a donor backyard firepit that never really made it in its former urban environment.

I took a blacksmithing class from an metal artist in Elgin and found out my great-grandfather was a blacksmith/farrier at the end of the Age of The Blacksmith.

He mentioned he had his dad’s old tools in a box in the garage.

Would I want them?

The Forge was born.