Brandon Lee Dearing welds blacksmithing to family business

I’m a third-generation craftsman. For as long as I can remember, I’ve worked with my hands.

My father has a background in construction and drywall that he learned from his father, and in the early 1990s he began refinishing and selling antiques. He launched into antiques full time and from there he developed an eye for old world European furniture and design. He used those skills to start a business reproducing architectural elements patterned after the old-world styles.

Instead of taking old wood and refinishing it, he began building new pieces and distressing them to look centuries old. He builds book cases, tables, fireplace mantles and beams for high-end homes around the country.

My brothers, sisters and I grew up working summers in his business. I remember when I was six my dad would sit me in his lap in front of the bandsaw and teach me to cut out shapes from the wood. At 14 I was introduced to the world of blacksmithing.

Growing up on a farm I was always carrying knives in the woods, I spent hours trying to hone the cutting edges of my blades, only to have them quickly dull after using them. My dad knew of a guy who forged his own blades. He had been blacksmithing since he was eight after a custom knife maker took him under his wing and showed him how to forge.

My dad asked this bladesmith if there was a better way for me to sharpen my knives, a better whetstone I could use or a different sharpening technique. He said the main problem was the quality of knives I was using. He offered to teach me how to forge knives from good steel. I showed up at his shop and he introduced me to heating steel and shaping it with a hammer, as well as how to heat treat and temper knives for a much better, sharper, and tougher blade.

After spending time with him, my dad was inspired to buy a forge and an anvil, and we began thinking of ways to improve the products we offer. It comes naturally in a small business to try and innovate and improve.

We began to incorporate hand-forged iron into the furniture and design elements that we offered. Europe and early America were full of examples of iron forged into design elements. We learned how to forge iron hand rails, fire screens, door pulls, barn door tracks, and iron brackets used to bolt ceiling truss beams. The woodwork and the blacksmithing both work well together. We often forge lag bolts, straps or braces out of iron to help mount our doors, tie our tables together or support our trusses.

The majority of what we do comes from being self-taught. Constantly experimenting with new finishes for our woodwork, or new ways to bend and shape hot metal.

I like the idea of combining different materials to help make products that will last generations. So much of our modern culture focuses on quantity rather than quality, speed rather than style. I believe that many people are getting tired of our throw-away society. I think that our culture is starting more and more to look back at the way things used to be done, how things used to be built. In that way I believe that blacksmithing can tell a story. If something is hand forged, no two pieces are exactly alike. And as you swing the hammer, you’re in complete control of how you’d like the project to turn out. You can forge something simple and practical, or test your creativity, twisting and bending and shaping the steel to add decorative flourishes to your work.

When I turned 18, I decided to continue working with my hands to help pay my way through college. Early on though I chose to continue working with my hands in the family business and started branching out in selling products of my own in Kansas City, Missouri. My father and I continue to work together on projects for his business and he helps me with mine. Part of what we want to start doing is offering classes online on how make the things that we do, and help people as they want to start working with their hands and making things around their homes that at the end of the day they can be proud of.

Selling a product is one thing, but we also want to inspire the kind of people who would love to be able to build their own fireplace mantle, or their own shutters, or forge their own knife.

I enjoy being able to put my mark on something that at the end of the day will stand the test of time. As a Christian I believe in doing anything I’m engaged in to the best of my ability. Often

times I’m working on small details that few people would ever notice, highlighting the steel after it’s been forged, distressing the wood so it looks authentically aged, getting a wood glaze to match just right.

I continue to work in a variety of different disciplines. People who work with their hands or seek to preserve a time-honored craft, are in my experience a very welcoming community who will take time out of their schedules to help introduce you to their passion if they sense you sincerely want to learn.

I was fortunate to be introduced into woodworking by my father who was already a very established designer and craftsman, often called a Renaissance Man by his clients, I was able to learn the skills of blacksmithing by a world-class bladesmith who’s been forging since he was eight, I was taught leather working from a custom saddle maker who runs a leather shop that he took over from his father-in-law. A few years ago I was introduced to silversmithing and was able to start working with different precious metals. I was able to learn trapping and snaring from one of the best trappers in the country.

Just a few decades ago, blacksmithing was considered a dying art. But now this ancient craft and others like it are experiencing a renaissance, with young men and women like myself able to innovate and try new things, while at the same time learning from previous generations.