Carl West

Mr. West discovered smithing in the mid-70's and has been doing it off and on since. "Whenever my landlord has allowed it, I've had a forge set up." He earned a BFA in Sculpture at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. During those summers he worked with Warren Swanson, a blacksmith in West Newfield, Maine. "I learned a lot with Warren: how to run a fire, how the metal moves under the hammer, how to make a hundred fireplace pokers in a day..." Since then he has made armor for medieval recreationists, been a graphic artist and programmer, and repaired watches and jewelry.  "The whole time I was doing that other stuff," says West, "the hot iron kept calling to me. It's good to get back to the hammer and be sharing the joys of blacksmithing with others."