Brant & Cochran
“So fast forward about 25 years, my godson, Ryan Gumpert, goes to apply to Paul Smith, gets in, I'm like, ‘Oh, perfect. I'll buy him this Maine axe, because I know he's got to have an ax as a freshman.’ And the Maine patterned axes were no longer made here,” says Stephen Ferguson, co-owner of Brant & Cochran.
Mark Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson and Barry Worthing came together to bring back the craft of Maine axe making in Maine, a craft and tradition missing since the 1960s. They researched, made connections and finally put together a Maine patterned axe that is known for its quality and authenticity.
Photographed by Justin Smulski
Matanah Betko forming the Maine patterned axe head which can be a timely process.
Photographed by Justin Smulski
Gabriel McNeill sharpening the axe blade and getting it prepped to take on the next step of the axe making process.
“The first axe we made, which we call the Allagash Cruiser, was based upon a pattern that we took from the, literally pulled off the wall, of the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum. So we took the historic axe and used that as our model and that's being made today. So if you hold the axe from the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum next to our axe, it's pretty much the exact same thing,” says Stephen.
Although the three men have no blacksmith skills, they have built a highly skilled team of blacksmiths and artists to help reignite a once lost Maine tradition.
Photographed by Justin Smulski
Mark (not pictured) and Stephen Ferguson and Barry Worthing curated a team of blacksmiths to bring back the craft of Maine patterned axes.
“We didn't know any blacksmiths really. We know a couple. But one guy came into our tent and we're saying, ‘Yeah’, you know, ‘We're hoping next year, 2018, we're going to be making our own axes and selling them.’ And Gabriel said, ‘Who's doing that?’ And we say, ‘We have no idea.’ And he said, ‘Well, I think I could probably help you.’ So that was really the start of it. That's how we met Gabriel,” says Stephen.
Gabriel was the one who assisted the men with fine tuning a process that would turn steel into a beautiful axe. In addition to being a talented blacksmith and artist, he is also a mechanic and fixes the equipment that helps them day-to-day. To support their core team members, they also bring in interns from Maine College of Art, as well as from the local PATHS (Portland Arts Technology High School) programs to create a pipeline of young but promising blacksmiths.
“With Maine College of Art, and meeting with them, and also the PATHS program in the city of Portland schools, which are the technical vocational schools, we've had some students come over from that and work for us. And so we're trying to cycle in students. All of our blacksmiths are, I mean, everyone's under 35 years old. So we don't have any really older folks, other than me, Steve and Barry, that are wandering around that shop. But, you know, and we're trying to create this kind of pipeline of people that we can train up because we're not, it's not like we can put out an ad and say, ‘Looking for axe makers, anyone that has experience making axes, please come to us!’ We'd be drumming our fingers on the desk for the rest of our lives,” says Mark.
Being a part of this Maine history and community has really been a success for Brant & Cochran and it will continue to be.
“A lot of people are doing a lot of really fantastic work in the state of Maine. All you need to do is go and look at the at the work being done by the members of Maine, like Maine Craft Association, and just go through and look at that...We've been lucky that when we come up against problems that we've got these people working with us and, in ourselves to some extent, that can help and have worked through problems in kind of non-traditional ways,” says Stephen.