Written by Lorinda Peel-Wickstrom
Tim Peel-Wickstrom
In 2013, an idea came to Tim of creating a blacksmithing business that utilized scrap metal re-purposed into new products. He wanted to align a sustainable business concept that redirected material away from landfills, with his desire to make historical and functional items. What began as a hobby of making chainmail armor and learning about medieval armor smithing grew into a means of producing practical tools in an artistic and old-fashioned way.
After immersing himself in the realm of gardening and permaculture, Tim realized the importance of high quality gardening tools. He wanted to re-purpose material and create items of beauty that would last for a life-time, to honor the way tools were created in the past and to avoid contributing to our disposable consumerist tendencies.
In 2012, he participated in his first blacksmithing course, which was a three day event. Prior to that he had found a local blacksmith who traded beer for training and the use of his shop. This was truly the circumstance that ignited Tim’s interest in smithing and led to him further his education on it by taking occasional courses or workshops. Next came setting up a dedicated shop space to practice in. The initial shop area was a small shed really intended for storage and a lawnmower or two. Though challenging in its size, Tim learned he could work with a very simple environment if need be. Around 2017, he officially launched Reforged Ironworks. His shop space has grown over time to accommodate more tools, products being produced, and people becoming involved. (Now his shop could fit at least ten lawnmowers! And a power hammer.)
In 2019 our family relocated to the Creston area, and Tim joined The Kootenay Blacksmith Association. When our family attended the gatherings and workshops held by this group, we were part of the minority of younger people. This association showcased informative experience and talent to encourage other smiths to continue with the craft; there does seem to be a resurgence of interest in learning older trades. It can also be isolating practicing work that isn’t very common, so it was inspiring to have a gathering and encourage connection between experienced and aspiring smiths, hobbyists and those making a career of the practice and those who just wanted to see what the trade looked like in action.
Tim has set up several forges, one being a traditional Japanese charcoal forge. He learned to make his own charcoal and appreciates the simplistic, soothing, and quiet function of a fuigo Japanese bellows with charcoal fuel. It fits in well with our desire to engage in slow-craft where we are working in a different direction than mass production.
Tim enjoys sharing his experience and knowledge with others and has created a Youtube channel with instructional and educational videos. He also teaches classes on occasion. He is always learning new techniques or experimenting with making more tools, and continues to nourish the seed which grew into Reforged Ironworks as seen today. It hasn’t been an easy journey trying to make ends meet as an artisan family practicing slow-craft, yet in 2026 our family celebrated a decade of running a blacksmithing business.
When he’s not nerding out watching smithing videos, he alternatively nerds out as a dungeon master playing D&D (and has shared the joy of this game with his step-daughter, Hazel). Learning to play guitar, perfecting the skills of sourdough bread baking and Sudoku are some of his other interests.
Trustin Blackmore
Trustin joined our team in February 2025. He had sneak peeks into our shop when he began dating our daughter, Hazel, several years prior; his interest in the craft was subsequently piqued. Beforehand he’d also tried blacksmithing during a school field trip to the preserved historical attraction Fort Steele Heritage Town.
At a young age, Trustin was drawn to making things with his hands – anything from treehouses to fishing baskets, but also especially metal wire. What began as a child twisting wires together to see what he could create evolved into teaching himself to create jewellery and art pieces with fine wiring later in his youth. Growing up in an industrious family, Trustin was encouraged to follow his interests wherever they led. His artistic talents and creative pursuits pulled him to find work where he was able to create and work with his hands. He also began experimenting with smelting copper and creating molds; the idea of blending function and art and the malleability of metal appealed to him. Smithing was a natural fit with his skills and interests, and when he was required to learn about a skill or trade in school for a graduation project, he approached Tim as a teacher to learn how to make a knife. He took to the work easily and was keen to continue his education on blacksmithing techniques; with Tim’s encouragement, Trustin stepped into the shop to learn the trade and work as a part of our team.
Aside from becoming a talented blacksmith, Trustin is also an aspiring electrician and an active bushcrafter, hunter and remote camping enthusiast. If he’s not working in the shop, constructing projects at his home base (one current project is building himself a tiny home), or frying bannock on his woodstove, you can often find him putting together rugged shelters and learning self-sufficiency in the wild. He has also recently learned the skill of cooking rice over a fire. With his experiences of off-grid living, he’s further developed respect for traditional methods and age-old skills, as well as a desire to learn new ideas and techniques.
We welcomed his enthusiasm for hand-crafted materials, his perseverance with repetitive work and his willingness to learn as beneficial contributions to Reforged Ironworks.
Hazel Raine
Hazel was introduced to blacksmithing as a child when she witnessed Tim’s work in the shop. Many of her childhood memories are soundtracked with the distant comforting drumbeat of Tim’s hammer from his first tiny shop. Being an artistic and creative individual who also appreciated works of art, she was willing to help out in the shop or behind the scenes with packaging beginning in 2023. As business grew with the influx of interest in online shopping and platforms like Etsy, the need for extra hands became apparent and Hazel stepped in more regularly. We liked the idea of growing a family business where each member could contribute and earn from it.
Hazel had participated in artisan and farmer’s markets with us since childhood, where she began to sell her poetry, artwork and eventually photography. Part of her education from us as parents has been about finding meaningful work, creating products/art, marketing them and running a business. Hazel brought valuable photography skills and website/videography assistance to our team. She takes photos and videos of our products and helps to make videos of their creation process; the photos in this blog are hers. Her contributions include using the equipment in the shop to help with the polishing, finishing and leather-wrapping of the tools, writing posts for our website and newsletters (with a mean eye for grammar), and packaging products for shipping. Her work has primarily been behind-the-scenes, but her help and her willingness to learn have been invaluable assets to Reforged Ironworks.
In 2021 Hazel created a blog which she updates a couple of times a month and has maintained for five years. The blog grew into her own website, Instinct & Intuition, as well as a Substack account. These platforms showcase her beautiful photography and artwork and have also been a means of growing her talent for writing. Her inspiration from the natural world is featured predominantly in her work. Her interests as a young adult have grown to include collecting dead bugs and other creatures (okay, this one goes back to childhood), foraging for mushrooms, camping, canoeing, bushcraft/survival skills, and participating in the Columbia Basin Regional Advisory Committee. Being a homeschooled youth gave Hazel the flexibility to put more focus on her own interests and talents, and her dedication to honing her skills and being an engaged learner is apparent.
Lorinda Peel-Wickstrom
Lorinda has always been drawn to art, as far back as she can remember, and it runs further back in her ancestry too. She’s also very intrigued by the plant world, especially the realm of herbal medicine. She’d really like for her plant spirit ally to be stinging nettle but has yet to get to that level of plant communion.
Back in 2013, Lorinda signed up for a permaculture course which expanded her understanding of interconnectedness, and had her considering becoming an urban farmer. She also met Tim, and they began a long-distance relationship despite her hesitation around that. She loved his idea of creating a blacksmithing business that re-purposed steel to make artistic and functional tools, and has supported that concept ever since. The urban farming never quite got off the ground, but Tim and Lorinda eventually expanded their own little farm.
Fast forward to 2020, the husband and wife duo took a business course in the town they had newly relocated to, and were each about to launch their respective businesses in the community, when the world went into lockdown. Lorinda’s plan to expand on the sale of her herbs and art was shut down due to retail closures. Reforged Ironworks took off with its online sales, and Lorinda stepped into the forge for the first time to learn how to smith and help Tim keep up with sales. It was a rusty start, but eventually with Tim’s patient guidance, persistence and practice, her forging improved, and she worked as an apprentice smith. Her favorite job is to use the sledge hammer in tandem with Tim while forging. She also began helping Tim combine iron with foraged driftwood pieces from a nearby lake to create artistic home-decor.
Her additional interests include working with her draft horse, mainly learning how to use a horse for logging several years ago, and riding. Her main joys in their homesteading lifestyle are tending to their fur and feather creatures, foraging for food and medicine, gardening, browsing cookbooks and making nutritious meals with the family. She also continues to practice drawing, painting and creative projects. In (what feels like) another lifetime, she was an event and music promoter, and now tends towards a quieter, more hermit-style life; but appreciation for how music, writing and the arts bring beauty to our world runs deep in her veins.
Our family also continues to search for their future homestead, hopefully in the Kootenay region, but they have begun to look elsewhere. If you are interested in selling an acreage to people who would work to be stewards of the land, please get in touch with us to see if it could be a potential fit.
