Blacksmith forges an artistic career

Jeff Wester. file photo

He started out shoeing horses out of the back of a pickup truck. Now, he runs a 14,000-square-foot forge, welding, and iron works business in the Sisters Industrial Park.

Along the way, he created some of the niftiest iron artwork to be found anywhere.

Jeff Wester has made Ponderosa Forge and Ironworks into the premier blacksmith shop in Central Oregon. In one of two showrooms, drop-in customers can choose from decorative iron pine trees, cattail arrangements, candlesticks, coffee tables, bar stools, door knockers, towel racks, pot racks, wall hooks, cabinet and door hardware, and many other iron art objects. Most of Ponderosa Forge's business, however, comes from special order items. Wester and his talented crew can, and do, make just about anything from metal. Iron railings are among the most popular items and one of the forge's specialties.

"Everybody does fabricated railings," Wester said, "but the difference between us and the other 25 welding shops in Central Oregon is that we build forged iron railings done with traditional methods."

Forging is the process of heating the metal in a fire or forge and hammering it into a new shape. The end result is a shape that can't be produced by welding or fabricating. Fabricated items are made by cutting and bending the metal.

"We work all over Central Oregon," Wester said. "We do a lot of work at Black Butte Ranch, Sunriver, Crosswater, Broken Top and other high-end developments."

A second showroom in the metal shop complex is devoted entirely to fireplace accessories, where an extensive array of fireplace doors, tools and hearth items are on display.

Wester said that forge work is just one aspect of his business.

"Only about half of our work is blacksmithing," he said. "We do tons of welding and fabricating."

Ponderosa Forge's modest beginnings took it from the pickup truck to a small shop on Crooked Horseshoe Road and finally to its present site. "I built the shop here (Sisters Industrial Park) in 1991," Wester said, "and we've been growing ever since."

Ponderosa's initial shop was 3,000 square feet, a size that doubled a few years later. In 1999, the business more than doubled again to its present size.

Another popular place to see handiwork from Ponderosa Forge is at St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church in Sisters. The recently created St. Winefride's Garden is surrounded by iron gates fashioned by craftsmen from Ponderosa Forge. The gates also hold stained glass windows depicting the Stations of the Risen Christ.

Other commissioned iron art adorning the garden includes wall sconces depicting trees and mountains, free-standing candle sconces and a fiber-optics-illuminated depiction of the Burning Bush. The garden is also home to log carvings depicting the patron saints of each of the Eastern Oregon parishes.

Success in business has had the effect of edging Wester away from his blacksmithing roots.

"When I started Ponderosa Forge, it was because I enjoyed blacksmithing," he said. "Now I mostly deal with customers and design work and have great employees who do most of the actual work."

Still, he hasn't put the right side of his brain completely on hold.

When asked where he gets the designs for his work, he replied, "Oh, these designs mainly come right out of my head."

That's the artist speaking.