About Whiskey Turtle Forge

My name is Jeff Bogdanoff, and I am an aspiring blacksmith. I am a husband and father of two wonderful boys, located in Royal Arkansas.

It all started when a good friend of mine set up a charcoal forge and Harbor Freight anvil in his back yard. I would go over and make some knives with him, along with other random things. With zero idea of what we were doing, we were just heating metal and beating it until it looked like something. That was in 2013. Fast forward two years later, I threw my back out at work and discover the wonderful tool known as YouTube. I dove deep into blacksmithing videos and was hooked!

I started gathering up tools at swap meets, online and from friends. Spent about a year doing that and getting very little forge time as I was living in an apartment and my friend was very busy with work. (His parents didn’t care much for us playing with fire and drinking beers either.)

So I found a house with a detached garage and a big backyard separating the two, and set up shop! Spending every weekend forging hammers, tongs, punches, and drifts. I had no one to teach me so I taught myself.

After about six months of making all my own tools to work with a striker, I was left with a problem; I had no one to strike for me. So I put out some ads on Facebook and Craigslist to make a hammer and was surprised by the response. I invited people over to forge with me and make hammers.

Now, four years into this I am a mostly full-time hammer maker and still maintain a part time job as a CNC operator. I have shared a lot of forge time with some really great people. I continue to learn more and more each day, which helps me to make a better product to share with other smiths. I also constantly push myself to try and think outside of the box. I hope to make 2019 my best year yet! Thank you everyone for your support. Buying my hammers not only gives you a cool unique tool, but it helps support me and my family!

Get it hot and hit it hard!

-Jeff.

WHAT DOES WTF STAND FOR?

I enjoy whiskey, my mom called me turtle growing up because when I was in the womb my “you know what” looked like a turtle. And I forge stuff!