The next time you're at Hubbard's Tylee Park, check out the new iron arch, or at Fellow's Riverside Gardens there's a new iron sculpture there. They're both the works of blacksmith Chuck Hughes who we found recently working in his foundry in Hubbard.
The creative acoustic of mallet hitting metal is more antique than contemporary. Except in Chuck Hughes's workshop adjacent to Hubbard's Three Flags Landscaping Company where Hughes the blacksmith has set up his C&C Ironworks.
"I just really enjoy how the metal moves, and I'm just challenged by the fact that I can shape it however I want," Hughes said.
Chuck Hughes is 60 years old and a retired GM autoworker who, through his interest in the Civil War, decided 12 years ago to become a blacksmith. He apprenticed for a year and a half and then began his foray into the artistic end of forges, hammers, and anvils. One of his most popular products is an iron flower.
"And in my leaves, I like to design them with a leaf rib in the center so, I use a piece of angle iron and I flatten it on my hammer," explains Hughes.
The flower's stem is made from a large rivet, which is heated, hammered, and then bent into whatever shape moves Hughes on any given day.
He builds everything from the simple to the complex. There's a collection of scraps called Fish Magnet, and if you need a set of dice for your table top he's got those, too.
While Hughes practices an old time profession, some of his methods are more modern. His power hammer is fueled by electricity and not a water wheel, and the forge is heated with propane and not coal. But a blacksmith is still a blacksmith. Chuck Hughes is one of a kind.
"I don't know of any other blacksmith that's doing artistic work here. A few in the Pittsburgh area, some in Cleveland, but very few doing any blacksmith work in Youngstown," Hughes said.
One footnote about Chuck Hughes. Several years ago he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, which has an extremely low survival rate. But Hughes has had surgery and says he's doing fine today.
