Wilson Forge
Bluemont, Virginia
Who Are We?
In the rolling hills of Virginia, on the Blue Ridge Mountains, stands the workshop of Wilson Forge. The founder, Michael Wilson, has lived in Bluemont, Virginia since 1993.
Sarah Murphy, Michael’s apprentice and heir to the business, began blacksmithing with Michael in 2021 while she was home from college in the summers. Sarah’s skills improved quickly and Michael saw great potential in her. Ever since, Sarah has become like a granddaughter to Michael and his wife Karen.
Today, Sarah is enrolled in the Artistic Blacksmithing Certificate Program at The Virginia Institute of Blacksmithing in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Sarah is very active on Instagram and TikTok where she displays her progress and projects! Additionally, she facilitates online sales and inquiries made through the website.
Meet the Founder: Michael Wilson
Founder, Blacksmith, and Patriot.
Michael was born on November 22nd, 1940 and was raised in Connecticut.
He started in the craft of blacksmithing as a farrier’s helper when he came back from his freshman year of college in 1959. He continued to shoe horses on and off for 45 years.
The first blacksmith Michael apprenticed had gotten out of shoeing around World War I. He had retired from another business and decided to get back into shoeing due to demand in the late 1950s. Michael then apprenticed various farriers for the first 20-25 years of his blacksmithing career. A lot of the skills were almost lost to the craft in the '60s, but through working with excellent farriers, Michael learned a wide variety of forging skills. He mixed his time between either shoeing full time and rigging part time, or rigging full time and shoeing weekends.
Later, he volunteered to fight in Vietnam as a Green Beret, but he never got away from blacksmithing completely…