&Sons Trading Co make fantastic work & fashion wear, designed to be extremely robust, hard wearing & comfortable for their “Pioneers”. I had the honour & pleasure of being featured in their Pioneer Series in May ‘22. We spent a full day filming in & around the workshop, and although I’m no stranger to filming my work & process, having a professional crew & equipment to do it was an eye opner…

They guys from &Sons, including the owners Phil & James are great to work with, and their dedicaton to quality & sustainability works extremely well with my values

I worn either my Yukon overshirt or my Sunday shirt in the workshop almost daily for 2 years between Autumn & Spring, but my Elder Henley & Lincoln waistcoat are staples during the summer months too - I’m a big fan of their product, but a bigger fan of their ethics & dedication to produce quality items & support artisan tradespeople

Please check out the the video & article they produced after the shoot, which is part of the Pioneer Series on their website Journal - there are some inspring people featured…click here to see the article

In my pursuit to be a better Furniture Designer & Maker I’ve been taking Blacksmithing courses with Alex Pole Ironwork & team - although I have incorporated more metal & fabrication into my work in 2021, the forged aesthetic is beautiful & I hope to one day have a forge at Deer River Workshop, so I can make & create furniture hardware for my pieces.

I’m also a fan of Axes, and I have a small, but growing colllection of axes from makers across the world - some are displayed in my workshop on the tool wall…so to continue my foray into Blacksmithing, how better to hone those techniques than to take an Axe Forging workshop at The Forge in Sommerset

The axe pattern is based on the traditional Hudson Bay pattern, and handled in Ash. We leanrt a number of key skills inclduing difting the eye of the axe, forging out the blade, before heat treatment, quenching & finally handling.

After completing the axe making part with Joe Garnett & Steve House, we worked with wilderness skills instructor Joe O’Leary to learn survival skills using our axe