GARDEN CITY, Idaho — A father son duo in Garden City are keeping the art of blacksmithing alive and sharpen their relationship making wood carving tools. Barr Specialty tools has been created internationally known wood carving pieces designed to last generations.
- All tools are hand forged
- The compressed steel focus puts more carbon into small areas for a better blade
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Fire and metal have been a part of Barr Quarton's life for years.
"Probably 78... I was just enamored with knives ever since I was a kid," said Quarton.
But he didn't start out in woodworking tools.
"A guy I knew just started bugging me for this tool, this slick, and I'm like what's a slick? And finally I went well fine, so I made him that. He took it to the Timber Framers Guild show," said Quarton.
Where the piece would win a best in show award but each one of Quarton's wood carving tools has a humble start, cut from a piece of steel but then heated up...
"21 to 24 hundred degrees depending on what we are working with," said Jess Quarton, co-owner of Barr Specialty Tools.
Quarton's son Jess joining the business five years ago and says that major manufacturers can't capture the same standard.
"They'll just cut a piece out of sheet metal, form it so it won't retain an edge, it won't have that structural toughness that goes into all the forging and heat-treating and the tempering and kneeling process," said Jess.
I wanted to see myself what it takes to make this tool, so I threw some gloves on and got to hammer a piece which by the end is so sharp...
"That should be able to cut the hair on my arm off which you can see it's doing right there," said Jess.
But it's more than just making a sharp blade for Jess and his father.
"Because I'm so tired of junk. If you buy a tool from us, your great grand kid's going to get it," said Barr
That quality internationally known.
"Spain, Australia, Brazil, Mexico," said Jess.
Barr proud he gets to do it all with his son.
"It's like a dream come true for a dad, right," said Barr.
