Baker to the MASSES & a Cracked Ram on the Bulgarian Hammer! TFN

John Stephens
Feb 6
3 min read

Happy Friday, Folks!

This weekend is a BIG one for us. Not too long ago Coy presented an update on the production costs of our Core layouts. With some new-found wiggle room in our margins for a select handful of our simpler layouts we set into a discussion of how to pass these savings along. Not much later we agreed on the concept we’re releasing this weekend – the Core Line from Baker Forge. Some of the biggest hard-hitting layouts we offer now are consistently stocked, standardly sized, and most importantly, priced conveniently for new makers or simply those trying to watch their material budget. We spoke some on it Wednesday and released a longer video on YouTube where Coy breaks down all the background on this new line, what steels to expect, and answers any questions you might have. Check it out here and get ready for tomorrow's FIRST FIVE Core Line layouts!

Will Stelter of Stelter Manufacturing stopped through Baker HQ with his dog Marty on Monday. A quick stop-through on his road trip back West, we were thrilled to host him for a few hours and show the two around our facility. Waylon snuck in a little highlight reel of Will working the power hammer that we posted Tuesday, if you missed it, check it out here. One commenter noted that Will looked like “A kid in a candy shop”... we agree. This HQ will do that to ya!

A growing legend in the industry Will is a great example of character & hard work, if you haven’t checked out his work, find more info here!

Later in the week Coy and the production crew elected to finally deal with a crack in the ram of our Bulgarian Hammer. An issue we noticed when we first purchased this hammer, we guess it’s been “fixed” a handful of times before. First came the challenge of getting the ram OUT of the hammer. Next comes getting the ram repaired. Unfortunately locating a ram for these older hammers is pretty much impossible, with no other options we will have to cut and remove the dovetail portion and send this off to a CNC Shop where a new dovetail holder can be milled and bolted. Just another example of the types of challenges we face operating these old classic machines. We couldn’t do what we do without them though!

Inside the Media

Right in the thick of editing a shop tour YouTube video, we threw Waylon a curveball to start the week– a new long form explanation of our Core Line. With plenty of details to get out and potential questions to answer, we knew a longer than 1-minute video would be necessary. Thankfully, following a few longer days the video is done and was released alongside our first announcement of the new line. That meant some catching-up was required and had us both cooking to round out the week and fill our content obligations across social media. Regardless we are proud of this week’s media roll out and happy the Core Line long-form came out GREAT!Stay tuned next week for another compelling Monday Question and all the usual entertaining smashing content you’ve come to know and love from Baker Forge!