((L-R) Spencer Knight, Kurt Fisk, Hunter Dahlberg, Mark Manley, Heather Higgins, Anton Yakushev, Joe Elliott | Photo by Kat Yakushev)
Joe Elliott, the founder and owner of Dry Canyon Forge, a blacksmithing shop off of Greenwood Avenue in Downtown Bend, has been blacksmithing since he first witnessed the craft at a conference back in 1976.
“I had just graduated college,” Joe said. “And I had just found out that I spent college doing the wrong thing.”
From that moment, it took Joe about ten years to become a full-time blacksmith. In the meantime, he moved to Bend back in 1979, back when the town was smaller and less developed, “I’ve been here long enough to remember when the first million dollar home was constructed, and everybody was blown away,” Joe said.
Back when Joe moved here and before Bend was as popular as it is now, the town was still a destination for outdoor recreation, and growth was almost inevitable. While construction wasn’t booming the year Joe moved to town, it began to soon after.
“At first, doing traditional forgings was a very hard way to make a living,” Joe said. “Slowly, the business started taking off because Bend got discovered, and we had an influx of wealth move into town.”
As more and more people moved to Bend to enjoy everything the small town had to offer, more high-end construction began popping up. As it did, Joe and his traditional forging skills became a very popular option among some of Bend’s wealthiest populations.
“I got discovered as Bend got discovered,” Joe said. “I ended up working for extremely wealthy people, and I learned that that is not an audience that you can market to with traditional advertising. That was all word of mouth, and they will find you if they want to.”
Even now, Joe doesn’t have the name of his business on the building. He does not rely at all on advertising or foot traffic, because he solely operates on word of mouth; testament to his skill as a blacksmith and a tradesman.
Joe ended up being the go-to blacksmith for a number of contractors, architects and interior designers, connecting his work to a multitude of homes and public spaces across Central Oregon. At the height of the business, Joe was running the show with seven employees, and he was completing projects like steel gates and spiral staircases for clients large and small, including Pronghorn Resort and the High Desert Museum.
Things were going great for the Dry Canyon Forge, but then the Great Recession of 2007 hit and the housing market in Bend crashed. Without much or any new construction, maintaining the business became more difficult than ever.
The construction trade was devastated in 07 and I ended up having to lay some guys off,” Joe said. “That was really hard, really really hard. I hired people who had common sense and a good work ethic, and they were all good guys. You end up feeling responsible for them.”
Joe shared his philosophy on hiring within his industry, “I said to them, you gotta give me three years, The first year, I’ll lose money on you. The second year, I break even. The third year, you make me money,” adding at the end that the shortest anyone had ever worked for him was between six and seven years.
As the economy and Bend’s housing market recovered, so did the forge. More pleasant years went by with usual ups and downs, but then 2020 brought the COVID-19 Pandemic and the resulting shutdowns. During this time, Joe had to let go of an employee who had been working with him for 13 years.
“It was very difficult,” Joe said. “At that point I felt like ‘I’m not going to hire anyone.’”
During the Pandemic, Joe created a set of rules for himself and his business that act as a filter. Now, he keeps a very high standard and only works with reputable clients who he knows can afford his time, sticking to the word-of-mouth formula that has brought him 35 years of success here in Bend.
Nowadays without many new clients, Joe occasionally opens up the Dry Canyon Forge for metalworkers and blacksmiths to work on their projects and hone their craft. He has hosted workshops in collaboration with other local metalworks, and many members of the Central Oregon Metal Arts Guild, or COMAG.
As for the future? Joe is looking to spend more time down in Mexico, and he’s hoping to find a buyer for the building as he works himself into retirement. Looking back on his professional life, Joe seems happy, “It’s been a wonderful profession,” he said. “My bad clients, I can count on one hand, and I wouldn’t even need the whole hand. Not bad for 35 years.”
