Dan joined the Smythick Forge team in May 2009.
"My very first anvil and hammer were crude, and ill suited to working with metal. As an eight-year-old boy, I remember flattening pieces of old pipe on a concrete block (my anvil) using my father's claw hammer. These flattened, dented pieces of pipe were no more than that - but in my mind, each was Excalibur, Glamdring or some other sword from legend and myth - how imagination smoothes those little details out!
Years of clandestine metalwork came and went. During my time at secondary school, we were required to partake in a week's work experience. After being turned down by the local carpenter (don't ask), I found Simon Grant-Jones' number in the directory. A week of blacksmithing followed - and, like all who fall into this job, I was hooked...
At some point I managed to rig up a rudimentary forge in my Uncle's garden. A colleague at the local shop kindly gave me a bag of charcoal and, using an old oil drum, a piece of box-section, and a hairdryer, the fire was lit. Taking my (by earlier standards) extremely advanced tools I forged my very first axe. It, again, was crude, but it fit to a handle, and had a sharp edge.
Some more years passed, and I enrolled at Hereford College of Technology, as a participant in the famous (but everchanging) Blacksmithing course. My first year was fraught with change, as the course was more or less re-written as we tried desperately to keep up. Under the tutelage of David Field, we all just about managed to make simple items, and by the end of the year, though smaller, the core of people left were competent forgers. The second year, under the somewhat sterner guidance of Steve Mitchell was rewarding in its more "working" approach - I suspect we started to take ourselves somewhat too seriously - and we all learned how to really swing a hammer. At this edifice, I learned a lot about how to move metal. The course as a whole was a real solid foundation on which to build more complex smithing skills.
During my second year, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in Shetland, working with Bruce Wilcock. It was a busy two weeks, with us forging bollards for Shetland Maritime Museum, fixing fences on the top of the windiest hill I've ever seen, making masons tools, and, when there was a (rare) quiet moment, making tools for my personal tool kit. I thought I'd seen a bit of hard work in the smithy before, and indeed many of the tutors at college are masters of their way - Henry's eye for detail is legendary, Adrian's opinions on art loud and (by dint of volume) irrefutable - but never did I see a hammer, in hand or powered by machinery, so wielded. By God, that man can forge.
College ended, and firm friends and colleagues went their seperate ways. I spent 6 months or so working for Mark Lumley, making forged furniture for expensive offices. The work was enjoyable, the heavier forging intense, and I learned much about blacksmithing in small batch production. Since then I have worked for various blacksmiths, fabricators and engineers, making everything from replica 17th century cooking irons and nails, to sheet metal ducting for massive factories.
Working with Lisa is a breath of fresh air. The items we make, though often new in design, are traditionally forged, and to my mind beautiful in their simplicity of creation - fire, iron and hammer. Soon I hope to develop my passion for toolmaking (especially axes) into a viable product range.
Dan.