It’s about time for an update from the crew here. My wife has taken on a bigger and more direct role in how we do things in the forge. I’m grateful for her presence and dedication. We fully expected the pandemic to slam our business into the ground but it had the exact opposite effect. This website, and our Etsy shop, helped make 2020 one of our best years yet. That was the impetus for my wife to devote more of her time helping me with Reforged Ironworks.
A trend we noticed last year, despite the obvious move to purchasing online, was the renewed interest in “do-it-yourself” and buying local. This phenomenon helped drive interest in our gardening tools, which has always been the main purpose of creating our business. Also, the crazy increases in material prices for things such as newly manufactured wood and steel has reaffirmed our decision to make as much of our product with old and reclaimed materials.
In a lot of ways, it seemed that we were ahead of the curve. Can we stay ahead of it in the second year of a pandemic and with all the other shifting variables and concerns out there in the world? We won’t know until it’s come and past. I can say with some certainty, however, that not chasing fads and instead staying true to our focus and reason for doing the work we do, i.e. to create heirloom quality garden and homestead tools by hand from reclaimed materials, will most likely see us through any challenges that come our way.
– Tim