First off I got to say that the motivation to pen this came from a conversation I had with Brent Bailey and his desire to do something very similar to post on his website…. I in no way am intending to rip off Brent’s idea and I ask him to forward me a copy of his writings to post on the site once he has it put together…. But during the conversation I just felt like it was time to say a little something about our lost friend, something I had been meaning to do but had a hard time actually sitting down to type it out. There is a lot that can be said about Grant. He could be difficult to deal with, frustrating and goofy…. He had a strange sense of humor that some found hilarious and others offensive… But one thing that no one could argue is Grant was the real deal. At least for me he took a long time to warm up to… I tried for several years to get him help me with some mechanical projects that where over my head with no luck. He blew me off kind of like you would any kid asking silly questions but I kept at it. Finally one day I got him to come by and look at something I was working on and basically like the flick of a switch he opened up and started to share his knowledge.. I think a big part of this was he saw that I was trying, that I was doing and making mistakes… I was not just talking about these things to talk about them but I was spending the time to work through it. From that point on Grant taught me many lessons, many of which I didn’t want to learn but he thought I should…. Often I would call up and ask how he had done something in the past and he would reply “I don’t remember”… So I would try and fail and call back up and tell him what happened and he would start right in… Well what I did was this and this and you need to change that…. He knew all along what I need to do but he wanted me to try and learn something before he gave the answers… I think there is a lot of wisdom and respect in that.. Grant had my back…. Sometimes he would complain, bitch and whine about how much time something took he had quoted me $500 to build for me, some die or tool, and how it should have cost double that … And then not accept any money when it came time to settle up…. One time I really needed some help figuring out some industrial production forging process and he told me it would cost $500 for him to come show me… In the big picture having the “pro” come and help me out $500 was a small price to pay… But after we worked it out he more or less demanded that we spend the next 8 hours tearing down and repairing a hammer that had issues just for the fun of it…. Grant really was a funny guy… He was very giving in his own way while sometimes seeming otherwise…. He was very open with some knowledge and very protective of other bits… Grants heart I think was always in the right place no matter how stand offish he might act… I really miss the guy… We talked often and honestly I got to where I sometimes wouldn’t answer when he called, not because I didn’t want to talk to him but because I knew I would likely have to spend an hour before I could get off the phone and back to work.. Some might think its strange for guys who had 25 years between them to be friends but we shared a lot , laughed a lot and I can’t speak for Grant but I sure enjoyed being around him. I don’t know all of Grants history but I have very little problem saying that Grant may be the most influential American blacksmiths to lived in the last 100 years. Some would say that Francis Whitaker, Samuel Yellin or one of many other great smiths…. But let me ask you this… Who as a single man has had a direct hand in creating and furthering the craft… Grants tools have been used to create thousands and thousands of works of art, Grant will not have books written about his work, He doesn’t have fancy scrolled bits hanging in prestigious places in the way more recognized blacksmiths might… But Grant has had a bigger impact and influence than any of them ever will to the actual creation of forged iron. You would be hard pressed to enter any modern blacksmith shop anyplace in the country that does not have at least one of Grants tools in it…. And if you can find one I would bet that at least one of the tools that is there was influenced by one of Grants products… As far as I am concerned Grant perfected modern tongs…. He made them everything they should be and nothing they don’t need to be… he brought mass produced textures and swages to beginners and experts alike allowing people to both have more fun and make more money as a blacksmith… Grant took industrial scale forging process only profitable for big business and perfected them to make incidental things for a niche market in a little shop with equipment he built and modified. We will probably not see another Grant in our lifetime in the blacksmithing community…. His influence and innovation will carry on long after his departure because every time you pick up a tool he made a piece of his soul is put into that work…. All I hope is now and again you stop and give a bit of respect and thanks for our friend. When you pick up that pair of tongs you thank him for all he has done for the blacksmithing community… You see him for what he was… A good person who did good work that helped every last one of us in some way….

Right on Larry, I only knew Grant for a blip but it was a good one. I love eccentric people and Grant was certainly that, just as the name OCP implies.

Thanks for posting this Larry.

It clears up a lot. I'll be honest, I never liked Grant. Of all the times that I tried to engage him at a conference or was in the process of buying something from him or he'd step into a conversation circle and kind of take over, I never could work up a liking for him. Either through my failed attempts to find a comfort zone with our conversations or his "blow ya off" style, we never clicked. I never took it personally but I just couldn't find common ground.

Reading your description of what it took to build your relationship with him puts a lot into perspective and gives me a new level of understanding of who Grant was . I've always admired him as a smith and even more as someone who made a significant and influential place for himself among other blacksmiths (not an easy thing to do). His passing is a real loss to the smithing community and to you I say, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.

Grant, if you're looking down - when I pass and if we end up in the same place, (I ain't gonna guess which one it may be) I'll give you a larger measure of my patience than I showed you down here, who knows, maybe I'll not mind sharing eternity with ya!

The best part of my OCP tongs is that I was able to purchase them directly from Grant when I visited Seattle last year. He was gracious enough to show me around his shop and demo his induction forge and power hammer for me. That hour was my favourite part of the entire 2 week trip.

Well written and also well deserved. I talked to Grant a few times over the phone about his induction units but never got around to buying one before he passed away. I always found his posts to be extremely informative and agree that his knowledge of forging was pretty much without peer.

Grant was the definition of the word "sovereign". He knew who he was and exactly what he was capable of. He took a very sharp mind and then honed it to an even finer edge thru commitment to his craft and building his personal skills and knowledge base. You may not have liked him personally or his approach to some things but you sure had to respect him.
Grant lived life on his own terms and refused to suffer fools. There are many among us who think we do the same thing. I would have to say one of the things that set Grant apart was his ability to see the potential in both people and process. He may knock you down a few pegs if you were talking out your butt but then he`d most likely stop, take a moment to see if and how you intended to get up and if he thought your efforts were honest and worthwhile he`d wait for you to dust yourself off, straighten yourself up and then he might open the door into that incredible storehouse of knowledge he kept inside his head if he thought it would further the craft.
He was the real deal. Someone who could both tell you how to do just about anything involving hot metal and then take you out into the shop and show you with heat, steel and machinery what he had just explained in depth. But you better be paying attention because he moved quickly, expected you to keep up and was only going to show you this one time.
I have no doubt that Grant is both showing the Forge Gods a thing or two and continuing to pick fruit from the Tree of Knowledge daily. He was someone who was never satisfied and always looked for a better, smoother, safer way to distill the best out of the craft he loved and devoted his life to.
Here`s to a master of the craft, a true Master Blacksmith in this world. We all miss him and are better craftsmen for having known him.
Thanks for reminding us and starting this post Larry.

I only knew the man online... but I was looking forward to meeting him... sadly I won't have the opportunity! I am pretty sure that I would have enjoyed the experience though! I learned quite a bit from him on this forum! Thank you IFI for that! The most important thing (I think) I learned from Grant is to look at a problem from many angles and consider several approaches for a solution. He was a very original thinker!

Grants sudden passing was a big blow. Here one day........ gone the next.

Gone.

So effing sad.

truly 1 in a million !

caught me by surprise when he passed on
very intelligent, with character
I still feel that its wrong that he's not around

Ferrous of them all !

I met Grant once, briefly, when I demoed for the Northwest Blacksmiths in Corvallis, 2005. I bought a couple of tools from his table, and he gave me a discount. I felt honored. I always appreciated his responses to threads on iforgeiron.

My favorite Grant post of all time:

Someone started a thread asking for help identifying their anvil. Another member posted something along the lines of "that's a Badger". Grant's response in a total deadpan fashion was "No, that's definitely an anvil."

That's a fine example of Grants sense of humor... ;-)

I'll let him say it himself, poking fun at my sig.


I wish I had a chance to meet him in person. His push made me try making tooling, and working heavier stock.

Phil

I'll let him say it himself, poking fun at my sig.
http://www.iforgeiro..._20#entry141059

I wish I had a chance to meet him in person. His push made me try making tooling, and working heavier stock.

Phil

I enjoyed reading that thread again. Grant had a unique voice.

I did notice that the thread included comments about the need to heat treat hot cuts or hot hardys. In message #6 of that thread Grant said...

Some people claim that the hot cutting will ruin the temper anyway, in my experience it IS worth hardening and tempering.

It seems like we had a more recent thread concerning this same issue and the opinion was that it wouldn't matter whether the tool was heat treated or not since it would lose any hardness as soon as it touched hot metal.

I tend to agree with Grant but I do understand the logic of the opposite view.

Comments?