The story of the forge
A horseman who became a blacksmith
N.J. Pawley comes from a long line of horse trainers. In high school he figured that if he was going to keep horses, he'd better learn to shoe them. He became a farrier, and learned what every farrier learns: you make your own shoes, then your own tools, and at some point you're a blacksmith whether you call yourself one or not.
A client at a hunter-jumper barn in Park City turned out to be a buyer for the Sundance Catalog. She saw one of the Christmas gifts he'd forged and asked if he could make a hundred.
"I said, I can build a thousand of those."
Back home in Cody, he's forged full time since 2008. He's built more than three thousand hat racks and still has orders for a hundred more. He works in reclaimed steel whenever he can, and finishes every piece with linseed oil applied hot. In July, when Cody hits 106, he forges in the middle of the night.
