The Ukrainian blacksmiths enterprice Gefest

The Ukrainian blacksmiths enterprice Gefest have been engaged in art forging for more than 15 years. In 1994 I established the Gefest blacksmiths enterprise. Nowadays it is hard to believe that everything started with one hammer and two apprentices of mine. But for these years there occurred very serious changes in forging methods, technologies and design, and in our public life as well.

Over these years we have become a creative team of designers and blacksmiths. It has become clear for us and our customers that there are not only coarse forged window guards, gates and fences but also different interior pieces made of forged metal combined with stained glass, stone, ceramics and wood. An important step in our development was an establishment of a separate enterprise which is the Kuznechnaya Lavka (Forge Shop) design studio. It is the place where customer’s fantasy and our designers’ efforts give birth to small 'masterpieces'.

We have a lot of constantly multiplying experience both in manufacture organization and application of our own secrets, that’s why we can produce a huge amount of compound products. A good example of our work is a decoration of the Donbass-Palace Hotel in Donetsk.

There is a foundry, a stained-glass window workshop, sandblaster, sites of painting, zinc coating and cold forging, mechanical work site, site of transport and even an editorial office of The Magazine of Metal in our enterprise. Though we have a lot of sites I wouldn’t like to call our enterprise a factory. We are a creative workshop in which for many years foremen have been mastering their professional skills and passing it on to apprentices. We are joined by young guys who have no idea of the work with a simple angle grinder. But eventually they become real smiths. The same happens with designers, foundry workers, stained-glass window makers.

There are 10 hammers of different power, gas, coal and coke forging furnaces in our forging department. Of course, there is also a lot of equipment and devices used by each foreman.

The forging site is assisted by the cold forging bay. That’s why it is possible to replicate separate parts such as scrolls, newels, decorative bands etc.

Material cutting is made much easier with the help of flame cut. We affixed it to the conventional cammed machine. It is very convenient to replicate feedstock for forged leaves of a compound shape, for example.

The caster enriches our products with delicate parts made of aluminium, brass and bronze. Welding is performed with electrodes, semiautomatic devices in carbonic and argon medium. Generators and other devices are used.
Reliable protection against corrosion is provided by cold zinc coating. For painting a Ransburg machine of electrostatic painting along with traditional brushes and rollers is used. It helps to increase efficiency and quality of painting and to save paint. The final step in the process of product decorating is art tinting.