Beau Beckett and Beckett's Blacksmithing

    I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in the sleepy little village of Normandale.  This was the quiet community my parents chose for their custom furniture making business.  They were trained as sculptors and painters so art and creativity was a big part of my life from the very beginning.  I spent most of my childhood in the wood shop playing with scraps of wood, building and learning. 

    I have always loved to create and when I was 13 I found a new medium and discovered my passion, blacksmithing and forge work.  A material I had thought was so permanent and solid, I found was now easily worked and malleable.  With my new interest in steel I trained as a blacksmith at Backus Mills Pioneer Village in Norfolk County where I learned traditional historic methods and designs.  I spent many years honing my metalworking skills working as a blacksmith, metal fabricator, and welder.  During this time I attended university and graduated with a degree in Physics and Mathematics.  This combination of education and experience in metalwork and welding led me to a career of manufacturing and engineering.  I started out as a draftsman and designer and over the course of two decades, I worked my way up to the position of Engineering Manager for a prominent North American snow plow manufacturer.  After years on this path I found myself so far from my passion that I realized I needed to take a step back.

    I have worked in the steel industry for many years now, and have worked in positions from the most basic primitive form of metalworking to the high tech manufacturing of today.  I have learned to use modern technologies such as computer aided design, plasma and laser cut components, break formed parts and robot welders.  After all this I still love where I came from and have come full circle back to the beginning, my passion, blacksmithing and forgework.