What is Harbinger Forge, and how did I get here?

Harbinger Forge is a Wichita, Kansas based proprietorship focused on hand forged tools and ornamental blacksmithing.  I started learning blacksmithing in 2018 while stationed in Albany, Georgia.  I’m largely self-taught, learning my craft through books, online forums, video tutorials, and a LOT of trial and error.

While I’ve only been operating full time since March of 2024, I’ve been selling forged knives and tools since January of 2020.  Like countless others around that time, my hours at my full time job were cut significantly, and I took the opportunity to jump into my dream of being a professional bladesmith.  Of course, it wasn’t long before I realized that I would rather be a general blacksmith than devote all of my time and resources to making knives, so they’re now only a portion of what my shop does.

In 2020, I was running a dirt box charcoal forge on a concrete slab out in the sun, and since then I’ve built a larger coal forge, and a forced air propane forge, as well as acquiring a small farriers forge, allowing me to do mobile work and public demonstrations, and I’m no longer working in the elements, though my current shop is still just big enough for my one man operation.  I started this business with a faint hope that one day I’d have the capacity to run it full time, and now I do, with aspirations to grow even more in the near future.