Stage Coach Forge

Edition Five Feature
Interview by Kate & Jack Lennie - Ryan Sanden
Location: Oakland, Oregon, USA
Photo Credit: ©Johnathan Cummings

What is it that you do and how do you do it?

I am a full-time blacksmith and I specialise in making hand-forged cookware using old world techniques. I use mainly stainless steel and copper, and I have a passion for old tools – some of the ones I use in my workshop are from the early 1900s. It’s a lot of fun. 

We started our business right after the pandemic began, and that is actually when I started blacksmithing as well. I’m not a seasoned veteran in this field by any means. I’d been a builder and a metal fabricator my whole life, but blacksmithing is a special set of skills within the metalworking industry that I had to learn, and create a product with, in a hurry. It was sort of out of desperation as I needed some work that I could do from home when COVID hit and everything shut down. 

I started out by creating handles and a rolling track system for barn doors, and then I realised that the hardware was just too big, too specialised and too expensive a product. I was really looking for something small that would be in high demand and that I could ship around the world pretty easily. That’s when I stumbled upon carbon steel skillets and decided that I could work out how to make and sell them. We now also make spatulas and other utensils as well as high-end kitchen knives.

Carbon steel has a lot of the same qualities as cast iron except that it’s lighter, it heats up a little faster and it has an even better non-stick finish, because the surface is that bit smoother. It’s a lot tougher too: if you drop a cast iron pan on the ground, it might crack; steel is really tough and bendable, so won’t break when dropped. Carbon steel skillets are a standard in commercial kitchens all around the world – apparently, the chefs prefer them. 

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