About Us
I inherited the love for forging from my father and we have been forging since 1987, when my father started forging. We started the forging business in 2004 and became one of the few and most modern blacksmith shops in the area where people are always happy to come.
We nurture the love of metal and produce traditional handicrafts in our shop, thus preserving the tradition of blacksmithing in our area. There used to be 5 blacksmiths in our village alone.
I successfully passed the master craftsman’s exam on 19 April 2013 as the 5th blacksmith in Croatia. We received many rewards and commendations for our work for participating in several craft fairs. We are a small but modern blacksmith workshop that cares about the environment, all our machines are grounded, connected to the ventilation so that all the dust goes into a special tank. We use LED lighting which has greatly reduced our electricity consumption.
We have installed a heating system on the forge hood, so that we use the excess heat to reheat the space in other work rooms when forging.
We have introduced many new products into our production scope depending on the needs of the market or the customer himself. Since the very beginning of opening the craft workshop, we have expanded our production scope to over 50 types of different cleavers, knives, manual meat slicers, several types of hoes, chisels, spikes, ploughshares and other custom-made products.
Our products are mostly produced by manual labour, and in smaller batches.
All our products are forged, which is how they get certain advantages in relation to modern industrially-made products of this type.
Every cleaver has a hand-made handle and rivets. We still make them the same way my father did about 30 years ago.
Our products carry the spirit of old times honouring our ancestors.
Forging
By forging the metal, a part of the blade is forged to the desired shape, the material is structurally connected and a much higher toughness is achieved, while a much higher hardness is achieved by quenching, which results in durability and longevity of the product. Quenching is also done manually and specific for each product. The hardness of steel after quenching depends mostly on the carbon content. Quenching induces a phase transformation of steel which may cause distortion and cracking of steel. It takes years of practice and experience to achieve a balance between a good and a poorly processed product. The heat treatment that follows quenching is also a very important finishing part which forms the finished product.
We produce hand-made walnut handles and connect them manually by rivets that we also make ourselves. So the share of manual labour is about 80%.
The products are forged to make the blades durable and serve their purpose for as long as possible.
Recognitions and awards
We received many rewards and commendations for our work for participating in several craft fairs. From Osijek, Virovitica, Bjelovar, Zagreb, Gospić , Benkovac, Zadar, Split .....at the Osijek Fair we received a Gold Plaque, in recognition of preserving traditional values and a Letter of Appreciation from the municipality of Jakšić for preserving and developing tradition in our town.
