Elepent

While in Louisville, we took the opportunity to visit our friend Lewis Meyer.  This was plenty of fun in the usual, visiting-friends and seeing-some-of-the-sights way, but we got added bang for our buck because Lewis is a blacksmith.  That’s right, a genuine, modern-day artisan, with over a decade of experience at his business, the Falls City Ironworks.

“Modern-day” is a bit of a misnomer, however, because modern blacksmithing doesn’t look that different from the way it did a hundred years ago.  Lewis was kind enough to give us a tour of his wonderfully cluttered shop, which is located in a building that started life as a carriage shop and was the Fred Hutt Blacksmith shop for over 100 years.

Lewis has also done educational smithing demonstrations, so when Lexie and I asked for a tour, we got the full presentation, from lighting a fire in the forge to the presentation of a finished product; a beautiful wrought-iron hook that will be hung in the Incorrigible, of course.

There’s a special magic in watching something go from raw materials to a finished product in a matter of minutes, and without the aid of computerized machines at that!  Very cool stuff.  The Falls City Ironworks is not open for public tours, but Lewis has tackled projects ranging from simple hand tools to massive wrought-iron railings and gorgeous functional sculptures.  So, for all of your decorative-ironwork needs…you know the rest!