Beautiful Iron

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Latest update September 24, 2025.

Website has been upgraded to HTTPS. Huge amount of new material coming. I will be adding roughly 500 new photos over the next 3 months and some of these photos should be ready for viewing in a few more weeks.

FINALLY! I'm back. Biggest website updates in literally years coming soon. Added TWO new photos sets at The Post Drill page. Fixed photo links to some of the earlier photos on the Post Drill page and reformatted the page to make it easier to find the different drills. Also began replacing some of the smaller and lower quality photos. Do not take the fake vaccine.

Many of the older photos on this website will slowly be replaced with much higher quality versions. Most of the older photos on this website were made during the days when all I had was a dial-up connection, and thus the very low file size and low quality of those earlier pictures. I will be replacing many of these with much higher quality/resolution photos over time. As some of you already know, my old camera (used from around 2003 to around 2018) was a POS (piece of junk) - I finally bought a good camera. Massive collection of new photos coming.

I will be starting with one of the pages that hasn't been updated here for many years - the vise page. This was project I wanted to expand on but didn't have a good enough camera or time to for photos. This was, and will be a look at buying blacksmith leg vises. Everything from identifying salvagable tools to repairing and putting them back in service again. And links to vendors selling new tools and equipment.

This website was started 24 years ago using MS Frontpage 98. Frontpage has a huge amount of obsolete html code that was thought to be, at that time, the future of internet browsing. It wasn't. And some of that coding causes errors on some servers. All of that obsolete code must be stripped out of every page on this website before I can begin adding updates. These changes are extremely urgent. That 22-year old program won't run on my new computer - I'm using an old laptop to make these changes, and I don't expect this old laptop to last much longer - it's 12 years old. It is easiest to use FrontPage to strip out excessive FrontPage coding. Gotta get it done before I no longer have an old computer capable of running that old program. I am almost finished and should be ready to start adding new material after this coming weekend.

Fire & Roses is an amateur video documentary showing our team of blacksmiths forging a rose from a solid bar of iron. Using only the traditional techniques taught to German blacksmiths for hundreds of years. This is not a sheet metal rose, nor is it a bar that was smashed flat and rolled up as seen on other blacksmith websites. This is the real thing! Performed live for a small audience from Calontir in October of 2002. The Fire & Roses video DVD is now available for purchase by both internet and mail order. Click on the picture at left or follow this link: http://www.beautifuliron.com/events_zarchive_demonstration_iron_rose_video_forging.htm  for more details on the video and ordering instructions.

Beautiful Iron (formerly known as Horsefeathers & Hammermen) is dedicated to the display of tools, work methods, and products of the blacksmith, and to the use of horses as the main source of power on a farm. The focus is on 'old technology' which I define as any tools, machines, and work methods used before the year 1915. This is a private website that is open to viewing by the public. There are no professional writers here. Many of the pages and photos on this website were created during the era of slow dial-up connections that most people had at the time. Most of the photos on this site have been replaced multiple times with higher and higher resolution photos as internet connection speeds increased. All remaining low resolution photos will be replaced with higher resolution photos as time permits.

With the first Coal Forge pages being written during the spring of 1998 and first published to the web in May of 1999. Nowhere else can one find so many shops and equipment showcased as they are on this site. With literally hundreds of photos of coal forges and blacksmith shops, a foundation of knowledge was created to be shared and to support the forge designs and theories described in the treatise on Forge Design for blacksmiths that can be accessed by following the links in the Forge & Fire section. This site has grown to include other aspects of work which I, or friends of mine, are involved in. There is something for everyone from beginner to highly advanced ornamental ironworkers. Updates are made as materials are gathered and time permits. This is a work in progress and will continue growing as more photos and material is added, so visitors are invited to check back often. Building on the history of the blacksmith's trade, this website offers a tremendous amount of information and documentation to help other smiths to build their own forges and to see forges other smiths have built.

Created by a blacksmith to help other blacksmiths, this website is unlike any other. The photos of forges and design theories cannot be found anywhere else on the internet. The photos show blacksmith's forges (hearths) from around the world. Many professional shops and a few museum shops that tried to recreate period blacksmith shops. Often people who have seen my work will ask specific details of how I make my tools, built a coal forge, and learned the trade. More often still they ask me how they can learn the art and where, how, and what to get to set up a little shop of their own. The result was that I often needed to carry about 60 pounds of books and photos and videos everywhere I went. Many of these photos and other references are now posted here on this website so friends can find them at their own leisure and I no longer must carry so much stuff around with me.

My background. I'm an ornamental blacksmith or gatesmith working on all sizes of wrought iron ornamental gates and railings and other items. I am also a mechanic and for those of you who just have to ask, yes I shoe horses- with a preference for heavy draft horses. Gates and decorative work are my main focus along with draft horse shoeing and manufacturing heavy duty hardware and repairing machinery used with draft horses.

UPDATES

September 24th, 2025. Steam Power & Antique Engine Shows page has been updated with 2026 show dates.

September 15th, 2025. Shop Update. The new brick floor is spectacularly beautiful. All shop construction projects for the 2024-2025 season have been completed. I will be taking time off construction work for a while and then resuming construction of the stone forge in late October this year. Photos of the finished floor are shown at right. Bricks were orientated in two different patterns to add contrast and to frame the work area around the new stone forge and its anvil. The straight brick pattern in front of shop draws the viewer's eyes into the shop. A 45-degree herringbone brick pattern frames the work area of the new stone forge. This contrast of brick styles is intended to create a visually pleasing contrast of floor styles and to create a visual impression of workspace borders where forging is done within one area, and all other work is done outside that area. All machinery in the shop has been tested to make sure everything is running and serviceable. The new floor is a tremendous improvement over the old floor. It's safer, easier to work on, much cleaner, and it looks amazingly beautiful.  The shop is ready for both blacksmith work and to resume construction of the stone forge again. The rest of the update is on the Latest News Updates page.

September 9th, 2025. Shop Update. Moving Day has finally arrived. Finished brick floor work middle of last week (September 4th, 2025). Immediately began moving and re-positioning equipment, tools, work benches, and cleaned floor areas to make room for installing the Kerrihard power hammer. Early the following day (Friday 5th of September), loader arrived to lift the power hammer into the shop. Photos (at right) show the hammer setting on the floor inside the front entrance. Officially moving back into the shop and getting ready for real work and to soon resume construction of the stone forge. New brick floor is beautiful. Now that floor construction work is completed for the year, there is more open floor space for working inside the shop. Some final tasks such as cutting the plywood base for the power hammer can now be performed inside the shop - and none too soon as we may have rain coming soon. Photos of new floor will be in next update. See the rest of the update on the Latest News Updates page.

August 24th, 2025. Shop Update. Brick floor currently under construction. At the time of this writing approximately 1/2 of new brick floor has been intalled and looks very nice. Will be completed and shop will be re-opened in the next 3 ro 4 days. Photo at right shows brick floor progress at the time of this writing. See the rest of the update on the Latest News Updates page.

June 13th, 2025. Shop Update. The permanent section of concrete sub-floor edge  (left side of photo) has finished curing and this weekend a large section of the semi-permanent floor edge (right side of photo surrounding power hammer) was poured and floated. The semi-permanent section on the right (underneath the air hammer) will allow me to begin laying the brick floor surface soon and it can be left in place for an indefinite length of time and is easily torn out later when permanent floor replacement begins next year. See the complete update at the Latest News Updates page.

May 29th, 2025. Shop Update. Poured first half of the permanent concrete edging for brick floor. All floor dimensions and angles are measured from these floor boundary edge lines. Photo shows sandbags holding the large wooden form in place for pouring the concrete floor edges. It takes two weeks for sack concrete to fully cure so it was important to get this work done as soon as possible to avoid delays later when there is time to work on the floor again. See the rest of the update on the Latest News Updates page.

May 19th, 2025. Shop Update. At right are photos of the new concrete subfloor in the front of the shop. Concrete floor on a well-drained base now extends from front doors to the rear of the shop. There is still a 6' x 7' section of floor underneath the air hammer that needs to be finished in the front of the shop but this will wait until next year.  The wet muddy nasty floor and humidity problem is finally eliminated in full. Concrete sealer was rolled onto the central sections of concrete for the purpose of making it easier to keep clean. Concrete edging for the brick floor will proceed when I have time. Shortages of construction supplies will become a probem soon so I must immediately finish some of the planned electrical renovation in other buildings over the next month or so. This other work is urgent and must be done ASAP, so brick floor work in the shop will be slow for a couple months. See the full update at the Latest News Updates page.

May 3rd, 2025. URGENT MESSAGE: ...

As I write this, warehouses still have inventory and there are no shortages of anything in stores. A storm is brewing. Imports coming from China are shutting down until the trade problem is solved. One report says Seattle ports have little or no import container volume. Another recent report says Los Angeles ports total import volume are down 33%  (running at 67% of normal volume) and are expected to drop to 20% of normal volume in approximately 10 days. At that point we have only what is in warehouses and that inventory will last only weeks. Even if trade were to restart immediately it would take weeks to refill the gap in inventories. This means short temporary shortages and increased prices by this summer, and that is an optimistic view. If the trade shutdown persists, the shortages will be severe and take at least until the end of the year to backfill. Prices will remain sky high even after trade restarts because there will be huge backlog of items waiting to be shipped and huge demand placed on shipping vessels and ports. This will keep prices high and severe shortages lasting until at least the end of the year.

If you are planning any construction projects or improvements for this year, make a list of needed supplies and get them bought now. Read the whole update here: Latest News Updates 

April 21st, 2025. Shop Update. Front right side floor has been replaced with new concrete. Photos show the prep work to get ready for pouring concrete. New concrete sub-floor is now poured all the way up to the front doors of the shop. The wet muddy floor problem has been eliminated. Cats keep walking all over the new concrete so I immediately shut the doors to keep the little vandals out. Photos of the finished concrete will appear in next update for May.  See the full update on the Latest News Updates page.

January, 16th, 2025. Shop Update. Large floor upgrade in progress. During the past fall and Christmas season, stone forge construction was temporarily stopped while approximately 2/3rds of the shop floor was dug out and replaced with a new concrete subfloor in preparation for building a permanent brick floor. See the rest of this large update here: Latest News Updates page.

October 29th, 2024. Added Old Threshers 2024 highlight photos to Steam Power & Antique Engines Shows page.

October 27th, 2024. Updated Steam Power & Antique Engines Shows page.

October 23rd, 2024. Shop Update. Changed priorities, now replacing rotten old floor. Will finish chimney after floor problem is fixed. See the full update at the Latest News Updates page.

September 9th, 2024. Shop Update. Chimney foundation is now complete and ready for construction of the smoke box and flue sections. Earlier I wrote about the need for creating a hollow section under the smokebox to bring air into the fire from behind the chimney. Photos in this update show this hollow channel has now been built into the lower chimney before the smokebox construction covers the top of this hollow tuyere tunnel. Slip form construction was used to build this section of chimney foundation. See the rest of the photos with this update on the Latest News Updates page.

August 18th, 2024. Shop Update. Chimney base has been built. The chimney base is heavy and tedious work. This is due to the huge mass of stone and mortar that are put into the base. Finished lower section section of chimney base is shown in photo at right. Roughly 4-5 hours after stone masonry work is finished, mortar is still soft enough to allow it to be scraped and brushed off of stones and out of joints to expose the stones. To further clean any mortar that might still be clinging to surface of the stones as a thin film, a good mosonry sponge is soaked in water and used to gently wash the mortar film from the surface of the stones... See the rest of this update at the  Latest News Updates page.

July 25th, 2024. Shop update. Base layer of chimney and front pedestal started, and concrete subfloor layer poured and ready for future brick floor shop upgrade. Another milestone event because this ends the problem of dirt falling in and caving in from the sides of the trench. Chimney construction above ground can now begin in a few more days after the concrete cures...See more of this update on the  Latest News Updates page.

June 16, 2024. Shop update. First layer of rock has been layed down. This is a milestone event because after spending 5 weeks pumping water out of the trench every day, the top surface of the stone masonry is now above the ground water level, and ground water flooding is unlikely to impose any more problems. Construction work can finally proceed witout any further delays... See the rest of this update at the Latest News Updates  page.