JONESBORO — A Jonesboro group is trying to preserve a way of life that has become an art form.
For blacksmith Glenn Owen, owner of Forge on The Ridge Blacksmith Shop, it still is a way of life.
After four years of learning the trade, Owen gave up his full-time job working on sophisticated electronic control panels for John Deere. Now he can be found on any given day hammering away in his backyard shop, shaping metal with equipment and tools designed and manufactured in the 1800s.
“It was something I always wanted to do,” Owen said. “I was able to see it firsthand when I was a kid living on a ranch in New Mexico. When I got enough money, I bought an old blacksmith shop - actually on eBay. I brought the [equipment] back and took a few classes. Then I came out here and started doing some stuff. We burned up a lot of metal in the beginning.”
He was drawn to the trade for the chance to create something with his own hands.
“Just making something out of raw metal always appealed to me,” he said. “I like tinkering around with things, and I like old stuff. This allkind of went along with that, and I get to make things and heat stuff up.”
In February, he helped form the Northeast Arkansas chapter of the Blacksmiths Organization of Arkansas. The group, which has about 25 members, meets monthly at his shop, where they have access to forges and blacksmithing tools and equipment. Much of the equipment in his small backyard shop dates to the mid-1800s.
“It almost died out back in the ’70s,” Owen said. “It was pretty much dead, but it reemerged in the last decade or so because people are seeing things made by blacksmiths that are high quality and last forever. You’re not buying cheap cookie-cutter things.You’re getting something truly unique, and it’s going to be unique to you. That’s what I take pride in doing, making something unique to what the person wants.”
Owen hosts the monthly meeting on the fourth Saturday of each month at his home at 401 Magnolia Road in Jonesboro. Because of the holidays, the group will meet Dec. 15.
Those interested in learning the trade need not worry about expensive equipment. Owen only requests that interested people have safety glasses, leather gloves and adesire to learn a trade that hasn’t changed much since its inception. It costs $25 annually for a family to join the statewide organization, and Owen requests a $5 donation to help cover the expense of materials and the meal that is provided at each monthly meeting. Owen also offers private classes.
“For thousands of years, this was the way things were done,” he said. “It encompasses a lot more than what people imagine. People think of what machinists make now [and] welders - they’re all basically offshoots of blacksmithing. Those trades just became more structuralized into those different fields. You didn’t have to take someone and give them 20 years of experience to become experts; you can teach someone to arc weld in no time.”
Owen would like for morechildren to take an interest in blacksmithing.
“It’s a good discipline for children,” he said. “A lot of kids, they don’t ever get out. They don’t ever do anything hands-on.”
Alyssa Smith of Jonesboro joined the blacksmithing group two months ago.
“Men and women can do it - even short women,” Smith said with a laugh.
“It’s not what people normally think,” Owen added. “We’re not all big, burly dudes working only when it’s below 20 degrees.”
Smith hopes to take her 5-year-old son to classes when he is older.
“We’re thinking in the next year of bringing him out here and letting him start pounding on metal,” she said. “I think it would be good for him. It’s better than sitting in front of the TV.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 11/25/2012