Purple Acorn Forge

09/22/2025

We took a charter this year over vacation and had a blast! Mark landed a Sheepshead and as barnacle eaters they have quite the jaw structure. First time using wire for articulation but super happy with it!

06/06/2024

02/25/2024

Cutting wood for the upcoming camping season. This year I’ll continue my goal to spend more nights outside.

02/18/2024

Chickens are amazing animals, they feed us and help
us be a bit more green by not having to throw away any food scraps.

Jess wanted a chicken picnic table because frankly they are awesome so I used some leftover lumber from an Eagle Scouts project I helped out on.

Rebeccah Hoffman good use for the leftovers (and leftovers) don’t you think!

01/27/2024

Smoking some jerky and salmon today. Salmon and a couple jerky testers are getting basted with maple syrup from Kristy Haflett and Jason Garbarino’s maple syrup!

01/27/2024

My goal was to use as much of this years deer harvest as possible. So far I’ve made jerky, breakfast sausage, dry aged steaks, burgers , roasts, bone broth and soon to be bratwurst.

I’ve also rendered the fat into tallow and made soap tonight. It’s scented with cedar, rum and bourbon oils and I told the family that next time I’m adding sawdust for exfoliation.

As the world gets crazier I find comfort in making and providing things from scratch. One of these days I want to forge the arrowhead that starts the process.

Forge to table… I like that.

11/07/2023

My wife is a family photographer and does Country Santa sessions each year. This year our Santa helper got a special gift and a one of a very limited hat line!

Santa says that fires are natures television so I made him a remote!

08/23/2023

The Blackstone + smoker = Dinner

08/19/2023

I don’t make many knives but wanted to make a set of matching blacksmith knives for the shop. As they say… “failure is always an option” and I snapped the tang on one. But hey, the other one is turning out pretty sweet!

08/13/2023

In 35 years of living here dad has never parked his truck in this spot. Ever.

08/08/2023

Took the family camping on Lake Erie and made a campfire tripod to make our meals. It worked great! We made burgers, pizzas and breakfast potatoes over the open fire. The tripod is forged from 3/4in rebar and I fabricated a tray to hold cast iron grates I had from an old grill. The S hooks were forged as well but the chain was store bought. Definitely not the cookware to backpack with but it’s incredibly functional and a lot of fun.

I have ideas for future versions so let me know if anyone out there is interested in one!

07/19/2023

I started blacksmithing as a hobby with a desire to learn what I could about the craft and have since found a lot of fulfillment in it. That fulfillment ends up with some pretty cool handmade things and while building some inventory for future shows it’s amazing to get a chance to sell some locally.

Palmer Pharmacy in Russellton reached out to see about putting some of my work in their store and I jumped at the chance. They are family owned (serving the area for 90years), have a section dedicated to small local creators and a great coffee bar! Super excited to have some of my work in the store for sale and highly suggest stopping in and supporting a great local business!

Russellton Palmer Pharmacy