Our Family to Yours: the only sales we ever do

It's the end of February which starts our first Family Sale of the year, a thrice-annual sale on all our forgework celebrating what matters most to us here at Iron Grove.

The Colliers: Daniel, Lynne, Abraham, Olin and Elora

Commercial Sales Are Not for Us

We've never been one for commercial sales, they've always felt a little hollow.

For me, Memorial Day is a solemn day to remember the fallen, I've never taken a Labor Day off and days like "Black Friday" drum up a pretty bad image of rushed customers fighting over cheap products designed intentionally to break and insure you'll be back to buy another sooner or later. That's not our market here and never will be. Hand forged tools can't really be made much faster or cheaper, they don't get any easier in larger batches. There are no corners to cut without changing our tools entirely. But if you're trying to make a living there's still a lot of pressure for small businesses to compete with bigger companies and corporations whenever possible throughout the year, often to an extent that can be difficult to afford. That's why it can't just be for anything. It needs to be special.

I know that as a customer the best thing we can offer, aside from quality handmade tools that last a lifetime, is a more accessible product for the people who want to put our tools to work in kitchens, backyards and hunting fields. That's been a goal from the beginning that we always aim to hit. So, we talked about it as a team, crunched all our numbers, spoke to some of our cherished long-time customers and decided we're done with commercial and holiday sales altogether. If we're going to have a sale, we want it to celebrate the things that really matter to us and to be something that feels really good for us to put out into the world. For us that's FAMILY. The reason we do what we do.

And we want it to be big enough to matter to you.

The Family Sale

In the summer of 2022, we ran a series of raffles in our Newsletter to fund an adoption of a little girl left at a nursing station a few towns over from our home in Dripping Springs. When that little girl, my daughter Elora, turned two we ran a sort-of "thank you" sale for our Newsletter Subscribers who made it possible, marking our tools at cost for the week. That's where it began, and in that tradition, we continue.

For one week, three times a year, set on each of our children's birthdays in celebration of the notion of Family we value above all, we now apply a site-wide 15% automatic discount on all available forgework and made-to-order custom cutlery for all clients and customers to partake. Our Newsletter Subscribers however, as an ongoing thanks for all their support, receive a Subscriber code that can be combined with our sale and adds up to a total of 30% off all carbon steel, layered steels, Signatures, customs, and merch. Everything we make, at the best prices we possibly can, exclusively for our Subscribers who have helped this whole venture be possible and help bring so much meaning into our lives. Here's the links:

Repeatable models we make as a team 

Homestead Collection: irongrovetoolcompany.com/homestead

Personal one-offs and exploratory work

Signature Collection: irongrovetoolcompany.com/signature

Choose your own materials to be hammered out 

Custom Tool Builder: irongrovetoolcompany.com/custom-tool-builder

Show support for your favorite hill country blacksmiths

Tees and Hats: irongrovetoolcompany.com/merch

It Means the World to Me

My whole world changed when I first found out I was going to be a dad. The idea of being an example for my children is not something I take lightly and has been a huge catalyst in my life for all sorts of positive change towards being a better person, husband, craftsman and man in general.

I credit my family for making me the person I am today and thank God for them daily.

If you've ever purchased a tool, a t-shirt, a class, a raffle ticket, you've helped impact our family's life in a way you'll never know. You've helped build our homestead, teach our children and put food on our table. And I am eternally grateful.

This February's Family Sale is the first of only three sales we're planning this year and beyond, the next in scheduled in July and then December (2/21, 7/22, and 12/16 are their birthdays). I hope you find something adds to your home as you have added to ours.

Thank you for all the support.

-Daniel

Take a bigger part in our Family Sale by subscribing here.