I’ve enjoyed a fulfilling 35-year career as an outdoor adventure educator. I’ve instructed sea kayaking, whitewater kayaking and canoeing, rock climbing as well as professional-level wilderness first aid moving water and ice rescue disciplines across North America and abroad. Through my company — The School of Wilderness Arts & Technology (SWAT) — I’ve spent years training and certifying wilderness adventure guides though the LEAD Guide Training Program.
A love of the natural environment, a fascination with living history and a respect for the traditional trades led me to blacksmithing in the late nineties. After a few years of dabbling I set myself to full-time work restoring, repairing and replicating heritage-grade hardware for a number of discriminating clients. The lines of my art and craft remain informed by my years immersed in the natural world. I now focus almost entirely on creating heirloom quality forged craft and sculpture
My methods are those of traditional blacksmiths, by coal-fired forge and on the anvil under a hammer. The materials I use are primarily discarded iron and steels from the century-farm and antiquated or obsolete industry, permitting me to both re-use and repurpose. When possible, I allow my pieces to retain telltale signs of their origins. Each of my creations is a true ‘one-of-a-kind’ with a past and story of its own long before it found its way into my forge and under my hammer.
