High-Quality, Hand-Forged Homestead Tools

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Blacksmith Will Dobkins crafts, repairs, and restores tools by hand the old-fashioned way. Will and his wife, Melissa, test each tool in their own garden before putting it into production.
Blacksmith Will Dobkins crafts, repairs, and restores tools by hand the old-fashioned way. Will and his wife, Melissa, test each tool in their own garden before putting it into production.
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Homestead Iron’s high-end tools are based on time-tested patterns and customer feedback.
Homestead Iron’s high-end tools are based on time-tested patterns and customer feedback.
A century after Will Dobkins’ great-grandfather sharpened his first plowshare, forgoing low quality for master craftsmanship, Dobkins continues to produce top-notch tools in that same spirit, using a blend of old and new techniques to craft, repair, and restore homestead tools. Dobkins’ business, Homestead Iron, is located in the Ozarks. Each tool he creates is hand-forged and meticulously crafted to ensure durability. In this interview, Dobkins describes the formation and maintenance of his bootstrap blacksmithing business.

What do you make and sell, and what goes into that decision?

My wife, Melissa, and I run a blacksmith shop that specializes in high-end homestead tools. Many of our tools are based on old, time-tested patterns. We spend time with the hand-forged tools in our garden at home before they go into production. We commonly make three or four prototypes before we settle on a design. And in deciding what to create, we rely on a combination of customer feedback and our own personal experience.

For much of our work, there is no replacement for hand-forging tools at the anvil. For larger projects, we employ some basic power equipment. The power hammer and press allow me to work faster and longer but can’t replace skill. Without a solid foundation of how to forge and how to move material, a power hammer will just wreck your piece faster.

  • Published on Dec 20, 2017
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