Handcrafted America: Season 2
Season 2 Premieres Oct. 21st at 9:30p ET

Axes

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Anthony S. Martin Redtail Forge Works

Fairview, TN  |  Axes  |  Website

The axe is one of the oldest tools used by mankind. Former musician Anthony Martin makes axes today like they did in the 1600’s. Always fascinated with the trade, Anthony decided to leave the professional music industry and apprenticed with a blacksmith for 5 years. Using tools that date back before the Revolutionary War, he fashions new tools through ancient methods.


GET TO KNOW ANTHONY

What drew you to your chosen craft?

I have been interested in blacksmithing since I was a kid. Every time I was around a blacksmith I would study the work and techniques.

About 20 years ago, I watched an older smith work all day. At the end of the day I asked him if he would teach me. I apprenticed under him for 5 years.

I am a self-admitted history nerd. Couple that with the love of a skill that has been used to create household, farm and armament items for a few thousand years and a habit is born. I settled my blacksmith focus in Colonial America. Now I study pieces that were created in that time period and try to recreate them.

What do you enjoy most about your craft?

I love the challenge of making something from raw stock…. starting with basically nothing, sometimes even scrap, throwaway metal, and ending up with something beautiful and also useful. I guess, the ultimate is knowing that I have made something for a person or family that, if taken care of, can last and make an impact on generations.

In what ways are handmade goods better than those that are mass-produced?

There is an unassigned value to a piece that has had sweat, and sometimes blood, poured into it. To me, it’s not something that you see or feel…. it’s something that you just know. With a handmade piece, each one is “one of a kind”. That particular piece can never be totally recreated. No one else in the world will have another one just like it.

What does the future hold for your type of work?

This is a funny one. “Preppers” and “world will enders” swear that I will be the most needed man in America soon. Me…I think that a Colonial style blacksmith in 2016 is a bit like a guy making buggy wheels. Not a whole lot of people need buggy wheels these days but I have learned something about people, and I think that there is hope.

I get to do quite a bit of demonstration work. People watch me work and listen to the history that I tell them…. stories of how things were made, the effort it took to make things that are now taken for granted, how people had to work to feed themselves and defend themselves, and sometimes pick themselves up after they were defeated. Our society is so far removed from those times, and so distracted by technology, and so many other things, that those thoughts never enter people’s heads anymore…. but when they watch me work, smell the smoke, hear the ring of the hammer and anvil, listen to their history and watch it come to life…you can see that the desire for a connection to their past will continue for as long as craftsmen will continue to work.

We may not be the most needed people in America, but we will be needed.


Cast Iron Skillets, Baskets, Axes

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CAST IRON SKILLETS | BASKETS

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