Forged in Canton: Collegiate Smiths Hammer Out 4th Place Axe in National Competition

A group of SUNY Canton students took fourth place in the recent Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF) annual competition, judged by celebrities Ben Abbot and David Baker from the History Channel show “Forged in Fire.”

“We all like the SUNY axe,” Abbot said as the judges announced the top five finalists in a FIERF YouTube video. “It’s got a nice weight to it and enough fall that I could get a good balance.”

Students were tasked with creating an American felling axe and submitting it to the Forging Foundation for testing. SUNY Canton was one of 22 collegiate teams to submit an entry, and approximately 170 students participated overall.

The college’s team consisted of three of the most active members of the 13-member Forging Club, including Nathan St. Louis, an Electrical Engineering Technology major from Plattsburgh, Mitch Timerman, a Mechanical Engineering Technology major from La Fargeville, and Matthew Gattus, a Cybersecurity major from Jeffersonville.

St. Louis, who serves as club president, described the team's journey to enter in the national competition. The project began with St. Louis and Gattus working with area blacksmith James Tiernan at his home forge in Madrid. The duo first created a set of custom drifts to punch a hole in the axe head for the wooden handle.

Shortly after the club acquired high-grade steel for their competition axe, St. Louis suffered a shoulder injury that limited his involvement, leaving much of the forging work to Gattus. The rough-forged axe was then brought back to campus, where Timerman helped grind and mount the head.

“Initially, we were aiming for the stars, but as the deadline got closer, we realized we just needed to get an axe in," St Louis said. "I was kind of surprised that we got fourth, especially with all of the heavy-hitting schools that were involved in the competition.”

Other participating colleges include Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Florida.

Both St. Louis and Timerman had some prior experience with metalworking in different capacities, and both are members of the college’s American Society of Civil Engineers Steel Bridge Team. Gattus said he had never done anything like this before, and that he appreciated the experience of conceptualizing something and then bringing it a life in metal. “I was learning while doing it,” he said. “It's not like I was sitting in a class and then taking notes and then being thrown into it.”

SUNY Canton’s Forging Club took shape following a $5,000 grant from FIERF in 2025, which members used to purchase an induction forge. The grant stipulated that the club must produce a working axe and enter it for judging.

The Forging Club is guided by Mechanical Engineering Technology Instructional Support Associate Neil Haney, who has an extensive background in several forms of metalworking. The team also received guidance and technical support from North Country Smiths Kirk Perry and Tim Tiernan. All of the professionals who assisted with the project are members of the Adirondack Forge of the New York State Designer Blacksmiths.