Silas Wolff

Of the Forest, of the Sea. Scientist turned Blacksmith.

All Passions Start Somewhere

For me it was in my grandfather's blacksmithing shop, where I watched as he effortlessly bent and shaped wrought iron bars after heating them red-orange in his coal forge. Each hammer blow seemed guided by its own unique intent, and affected that intent almost without fail.

It was this first encounter with hand crafted artistry amidst the heat and smoke of the forge that started me on my own journey, although I didn't know it at the time...

Pilgrimage

When the time came, I decided to leave the woods of Maine behind and try to see what lessons the wider world had to offer. That journey, lasting over 13 years, resulted in an engineering degree studying the science of materials at UC Berkeley; experience selecting alloys for and analyzing failures of bridges and other infrastructure at a consulting firm in Boston; a doctorate designing alloys for high temperature applications in Germany; and a key role developing sustainable steel production in the Netherlands.

Smith in Training

On a whim, I decided to take an axe forging workshop given at a blacksmithing school and workshop called Smederij Atelier Alkmaar, close to where I was working in Northern Holland. After that one lesson I was absolutely hooked, and immediately asked if they had any openings for a weekend volunteer. Over the course of the next year I worked a few times a week learning some of the basics of forging, and sometimes helping to give lessons. It seemed that I had stumbled on the perfect mix of hands-on and thought-out, making use of finely honed physical movements and deep understanding of material behavior, structure and processing. It had now come full circle for me.

The founding of Wolff Works

Wolff Works was founded with belief in a different way of doing things. Manufacturing doesn’t have to be about making items as quickly and cheaply as possible. It is up to all of us to decide how we assign value. In a world where the metronomic call for productivity is steadily pushing us apart, there’s a very real need to actively choose slower pursuits. That means local, hand-made, individual attention. The movement towards hand-crafted is as much about functionality as it is about creating art and bringing people together.

After 13 years away from home, the time arrived for me to return home, to live closer with the land, and to create custom hand-made tools and sculptural ironwork to support myself and my loved ones. As much as its tempting to deny it, life is work. I’m choosing to spend it doing something that I love. That is how and why Wolff works.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert A. Heinlein