Driving up this beautiful country road, you first notice the deer standing imperiously in the middle of the lane, unperturbed by your arrival. Further on, you will be astonished by the exquisitely detailed and proportioned mailbox Garvock designed and forged. On the left you will admire the graceful curves of his beautifully wrought sign holder announcing the Fall River Forge Blacksmithing Show Room. In the Show Room you will be delighted by the wide variety of functional items for the home and garden that have been aesthetically rendered by this blacksmith artist.

Garvock has been working with iron and fire for over twenty years, starting as a bladesmith forging handmade knives. He became intrigued with the possibilities afforded by this ancient craft that developed independently around the world as early as 1200 BC (Wikipedia, “Iron Age”). Consistently, societies that mastered the art of forging tools and weapons from iron triumphed over their competitors still in the “Bronze Age” or languishing even further back using tools and weapons made from stone. The superior strength, durability and ability to hold a sharp edge provided an incontrovertible advantage. In English Canada, the first blacksmiths were brought to Canada by the Hudson Bay Company in the 1670s. Young journeymen were brought from England to help build trading posts and to make and repair goods that would be too costly to ship from England.

Mark is motivated by a strong self-improvement ethic, so his early interest in bladesmithing led to his accumulation of an impressive knowledge and mastery of blacksmithing. Trained as an electrician, he is constantly researching his craft and honing the skills and techniques that are the foundation of his chosen profession. In similar fashion to the journeyman smiths of old, he travels to many shops to broaden his knowledge base. He enjoys sharing his experience, and has demonstrated his skills at Old Fort Henry in Kingston and Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg. He has also given blacksmithing instruction at local fairs and is available for private lessons to anyone committed to mastering this exacting trade.

A Mark of All Trades

Garvock was raised on a dairy farm in Cumberland and has always had a penchant for learning how to do things. In addition to working as a licensed electrician/welder, he has been a superintendent of a skating rink, a butcher, a salesman, a designer and fabricator of electro-magnetic shielding devices and a youth pastor. He also is a guitarist. He remembers being interested in art from a young age, always designing letters and creating elaborate scroll-work. It took him some time, however, to think of himself as an artist. His smithing was originally focused on functionality and it remains a core value.

As he progressed through the learning curve of forging, building his own forges and creating his own tools, Garvock became more enthralled with the aesthetic possibilities of this demanding medium. It takes a lot of time and hot, hard work to learn how to manage the forge fire and to discover the “sweet spots” in your anvils. It takes practice to know exactly how hot your metal has to be and to instinctively choose the right tongs and hammer and edge and angle to create the exact curve and taper needed for symmetry and balance in an intricately curved piece. I counted more than 25 hammers in evidence around his forge, some made by him.

“I’m a very tactile person,” he tells me. “I love the hands-on aspect, even though it’s pretty brutal work.” He also loves the fact that a lot of his iron is “green”. He recycles steel whenever possible. One source of high-quality steel is recycled leaf spring steel from rear suspension coils, readily available at auto junkyards. I was surprised to learn that most wrought iron isn’t. Wrought iron, that is. The production of wrought iron costs approximately twice as much as the production of the stronger low carbon steel now used in most commercially available “wrought iron” products. The name remains as an anachronism describing a familiar appearance.

Be-All and End-All

These days, most of Garvock’s works are custom, one-of-a-kind commissions. He was asked to create a male Monarch butterfly poised on a milkweed base as a gift for a biologist at the Museum of Nature. He has just completed a spectacular table base for a lovely stone top made by neighbouring sculptor John Schweighardt. I was amazed at the intricacy and delicacy of the leaves and roots, and struck by the symmetry and beauty of the organic shape.

Mark Garvock also is collaborating with woodworking artist Dunn Sohn, and will be a guest artist at Sohn’s Maberly studio during the Perth Autumn Studio Tour this Thanksgiving weekend, October 10-12, from 10AM-5PM each day. Admission to this popular tour featuring 19 artists is free.

On his website there is a full range of photos of his outdoor garden art, interior furnishings, decorative items, custom cutlery and “wrought iron” designs. As with any true blacksmith, Garvock also accepts restoration and general repair jobs. He occasionally hand forges a custom knife blade, and creates a wooden handle and leather sheath. He likes doing leather work because it is so clean. But for Mark Garvock, hand forging is “the be-all and end-all. I’d rather forge ahead on my own than be directed by someone else.”

He hopes those influenced by his work or living with it in their home or garden will share in the same joy he experienced in creating it. To contact him regarding a commission, call him at 267-5247 if you don’t get a chance to meet him over the Thanksgiving weekend.