Ep # 184 - Modern Blacksmithing In New Jersey

A blacksmith shop in 2026 sounds like a time capsule, until you hear what EK Artisan Blacksmith is really building across New Jersey. We talk with Eldad Kaganov, an artisan blacksmith based in Hawthorne, NJ near Bergen County, about the custom ironwork hiding in plain sight around homes and historic buildings, and why “made to order” can look and feel completely different from what you grab off the shelf.

We get into the practical side of architectural ironwork: railings, fences, gates, entryways, and window grills built for real homeowners and real building codes. Eldad explains how metal choice affects strength, longevity, and cost, and why some projects require old-school joinery instead of defaulting to welds. If you’ve ever wondered why two quotes for a railing can be thousands apart, this conversation makes the tradeoffs clear without the hype.

Then we go deeper into the science. We talk oxidation, patina, and why low carbon steel can be a smart choice outdoors. Eldad breaks down what wrought iron actually means, how it was historically produced, and why some centuries-old ironwork still holds up today. We also cover galvanic corrosion and what happens when you mix dissimilar metals like iron and brass, plus how a skilled craftsperson designs around those risks.

If you care about craftsmanship, home design, or simply want your house to have one detail no one else has, you’ll leave with better questions to ask and a clearer sense of what’s possible. Subscribe for more local maker stories, share this with a neighbor who’s renovating, and leave a review with the most unique metal feature you’d add to your home.

Eldad Kaganov
845-533-3294
Eldad@njsteelbarron.com

Transcript

Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast

Intro/Close 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.

Meet A Modern Artisan Blacksmith

Doug Drohan 0:11

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, Doug Drohan and the owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group based in Bergen County. Funny that it should be called Bergen Neighbors, and I'm in Bergen County. And speaking of Bergen County, we're not actually in Bergen County. We're meeting with uh someone I never met with before in a category. Um, maybe a few hundred years ago you might have met a guy that's a blacksmith. Um, but Eldad Kaganov is the owner of EK Artisan Blacksmith. He's going to get into what that means to be a blacksmith in 2026. Eldad, welcome to the show.

Eldad Kaganov 0:47

Thanks for having me, Doug.

Doug Drohan 0:49

So, where are you based out of?

Eldad Kaganov 0:51

Uh so currently my shop is actually in Hawthorne, New Jersey, just outside of Bergen County.

Doug Drohan 0:56

Got it. Yep, right over the border, right near Wyckoff. Know it well. So tell me what does it mean to be an artisan blacksmith?

Eldad Kaganov 1:07

Well, uh we do a lot of things. Basically anything you can imagine out of metal. Iron, steel. Um every once in a while we deal with some of the non-ferrous metals like copper, bronze, brass, stuff like that. But basically, primarily what we do is uh ornamental and architectural ironwork. What that means is a lot of people they go to someone like um like a railing contractor and stuff like that to get new railings, new fences, gates, whatnot. Um well, there's some things that they can't quite do um that kind of has to be done in a more traditional way.

Metal Science And Building Code

Doug Drohan 1:46

Okay. So um, I mean, it's it's funny because I'm looking at your shop in the background, but I don't see an anvil and you know, like hot ambers like the blacksmith used to sit there and stand there and bang at something, right? To uh to create metal. But so I guess you know, you mentioned uh a chemical or the molecular um structure of certain metals, and you called copper and you know a different kind of metal. So when um to do what you do as a blacksmith, is it is a little bit of chemistry and a little bit of science involved in how you can you know bend metals and how malleable they are?

Eldad Kaganov 2:28

Absolutely. Um I mean, everything every metal has its use, and when it comes to doing some of the more architectural stuff, different metals have different um properties like shear strength and stuff like that. So if we want to be up to code, we have to use certain things.

A Quick History Of Ironwork

Doug Drohan 2:49

Okay, okay. So um, you know, it's funny, I was just thinking like, you know, the metal age, like when did uh mankind start to you know understand how you could take ore or something from a rock and then melt it down and create metal. Uh, and I guess it began around 6,000 to 5,000 BC, which is transitioning from the Stone Age. So I guess as mankind, we've been at we've been at this for a while, but it seems like it kind of leveled off when it comes to you know what you're talking about with with metal for homes for railings and things like that. Seems like it we got pretty um comfortable in like a standard set of uses for metals when it comes to home use. Um, but you're kind of turning it on its head in a way and saying it doesn't have to be that same old railing you see at Home Depot, right?

Eldad Kaganov 3:44

Right. Um, yeah, I mean, pretty much as long as mankind was able to make metal, iron actually was more of an accidental discovery. Um at the later part of the Iron Age, uh they were making copper in order to make bronze out of it. Um, and so at some point the furnaces you know got so efficient that they were actually making iron instead, and that turned into steel, and that turned into what we know today. Um for a long time, um ironwork in general was a crucial part of society, whether it was um you know, stuff like just your home utensils, uh weaponry, and then you know, in the uh later parts of the um kind of Roman era, going into the medieval era, Renaissance, and all that, we started using it more as a um beautification.

Speaker 2 4:48

Right, yeah, got it, yeah.

Eldad Kaganov 4:50

Um and that's kind of uh what we do, right? So when when you have um most modern uh architectural ironwork is all fabricated, it's all welded together, um and it's really nicely done if you do it, right? Yeah, what we do is basically uh bring back a lot of that tradition. So if you have something that's a little bit more uh Renaissance-esque, a little bit more um, you know, late 18th century, early 19th century, early 20th century, even, um that's pretty much what we do.

Speaker 1 5:32

Got it. Now, when you say we, who who's the we?

Eldad Kaganov 5:36

Uh well, it's me. It's me and three of three of three of the guys that work here. Two of them are apprentices, one of them uh is just a longtime friend that has also been doing this.

Eldad’s Path From Archery

Doug Drohan 5:48

Okay. So um yeah, let's dig into that. So how how long have you been doing this and what got you uh started? Like, why did you feel like this desire um to become a craftsman in in metals?

Eldad Kaganov 6:06

Well, okay, so what got me into it uh was actually not what I'm doing now. Uh I got into blacksmithing to begin with because when I was you know a young kid, teenager, um I was really into archery and I wanted to make my own arrowheads, and I figured out pretty quick that that was not that easy. Okay and then I had uh my apprenticeship um actually over in Israel and and Europe with uh Yuri Hoffee. He's passed away now, but working under him it it really gave me a new perspective on everything. Um basically what I enjoy doing in this is not only having a quality product, but putting beauty back into a world where everything seems so cookie-cutter.

Doug Drohan 7:03

Right, right. So you're into that uh you know archery, but um was there like so. If you're you're maybe you found a market for other people that wanted, you know, really cool looking arrowheads, but did anything else spawn from that? So if you're into archery, are you into swords? Are is there like a you know, a kind of a subgroup of people that I'll think about the Renaissance Fair, you know, or think of uh you know, Game of Thrones, is like and and it's funny because when you watch um Kill Bill, you know, the movie with uh the Quentin Tarantino film, and uh Uma Thurman is given this kind of like samurai sword from this master in Japan, but it was the kind of metal that it was made from that was really special, and I think um in a lot of movies, you know, the sword, the kind of metal that it comes from is you know means a lot, the quality. It's like knives today, right? You know, Germans make great knives, the Japanese make great knives. There's a tradition that's you know passed down for generations. Have you gotten into that part of things when it comes into like knives and swords?

Eldad Kaganov 8:09

Um I was for a little bit, but I I got over that fairly quick. It it okay, it requires a whole different discipline, to be honest with you. Um tooling altogether. Uh, and once I kind of found the beauty in steel and iron, I got over it pretty quick. Okay.

Custom Railings Gates And More

Doug Drohan 8:41

Nice. Nice. So what um so what are the uses like I'm a homeowner. Like what what what do you create and sell that I might be of interest, might be interested in?

Eldad Kaganov 8:53

Um, well, primarily we do a lot of architectural iron work, right? So that would be railings, fences, gates, um, entryways, all sorts of stuff like that, window grills, but we can also do anything else that people can think of, whether it's pot racks, uh you know, really anything that you see in a movie that's made of metal, and you say, I want one of those, we could do it.

Doug Drohan 9:18

Huh. That's pretty cool. So the um, you know, and I guess if if somebody wanted some different railings, uh you know, you don't have like a showroom, you make everything to uh, you know, per order, right? Somebody says I need it's not like they can come in and just say, Yeah, I'll take those off the shelf. You make everything custom.

Eldad Kaganov 9:38

Yeah, for the most part. I mean, we do have uh a small, I don't want to call it a showroom, uh, kind of a showcase of just some of the work that we've done. Um, and we do have this big flip binder made out of plywood that we screwed a lot of the the more ornamental elements that we could do, just so if somebody doesn't really have an idea of what they want, yeah. They can kind of go through that and say, Well, I wanted to have these and these.

Speaker 2 10:05

Yeah, right.

Eldad Kaganov 10:06

We could do that, but primarily, yeah, we're getting uh drawings from architects, and if we're not, it's usually direct contact with homeowners, uh organizations, whoever, whoever needs it.

Speaker 2 10:19

So, how long has your company been around?

Eldad Kaganov 10:22

Um, the company itself has only been around for about a year.

Speaker 2 10:27

Okay.

Eldad Kaganov 10:28

Um as far as I as far as me owning it. But yeah, yeah. Uh the guys, two of two of my apprentices have been working under me for a couple years now, and um the other guy has been doing it for about nine years now, and I've been at it about 14.

Doug Drohan 10:49

Yeah. Wow, I mean, that's uh that's pretty cool. Now, how's have you seen a uh market in um you know, is there bigger demand that you um that you're seeing, or do you feel like you have to get the word out more to so that the homeowners know like what's possible? Like when if you're hiring a contractor or you're hiring an interior designer, are they aware of you know what you do and what's possible?

Eldad Kaganov 11:17

Um it yeah, for the most part, it depends where. Um a lot of the time there is some back and forth with architects because a lot, you know, the modern understanding of how steel connects is mostly just people welding it together. And while we can do that, it's not our preferred method. So there usually there's a lot of back and forth about doing some more traditional joinery. Um, and when it comes to uh marketing and clientele, um we do get some good questions and we do also get questions about um, you know, why does it cost more than this guy, or why does it look different than this guy's? Well, it's using a totally different method. Um so where you know a guy that's fabricating everything might quote 30,000, we might be at 45, which is a big difference, but there's no arguing with the quality and customizability of it.

Outdoor Design Patina And Finishes

Doug Drohan 12:25

Oh, sorry, sorry about that. I was just reading something. Um, so yeah, I mean, I'm I'm I'm really intrigued by, you know, like I'm just thinking of different applications in my house, and you know, there's different, I guess, different uses between indoor and outdoor. So would um, I mean, you know, I used to have metal railings uh on a stoop that I had outside, but you don't really see those much anymore because they were kind of outdated from like the 60s and 70s, certainly in the traditional way that you'd see them again, like looking at Home Depot or maybe in some commercial applications. But it would a homeowner or say an architect come to you and say, you know, we have an idea, we have a vision. Can you draw something else up for us that would be that would use metal in a way that is um kind of joining with, I'm kind of going out there with this, but joining with the nature of like their deck and the wood and the natural wood? Like you guys have different understanding the way metals are used. Um are there you know different applications and different metals used for indoor and outdoor? Or um, you know, like the way the lifespan of something is it uh there are different metals that that are preserved better outside, or do they oxy you know, does oxidation come in and you get that nice patina kind of uh look to it after after a while? Like what would you say to somebody who's looking to do something that's gonna be outdoors in our climate, say it's uh you know, like around their fencing, they want to do something a little bit more elaborate, like what choices should they be looking to make?

Eldad Kaganov 13:59

So, going back to your first question, absolutely there are different applications, and you know, we've done a lot of work and we can do really whatever you want. So if you have, say, a rose garden outside of your front door and you want stoop railings that kind of match the garden aesthetic, we've done lots of those where it's you know um a little bit more floral, a little bit more natural, kind of matching the fauna of the surrounding area. Um, and that's that's kind of where the customizability comes in and is really fun to play around with, um especially customers say, you know, as long as it's up to code, have artistic freedom. We've done coffee tables that look like trees, we've done railings that look like vines and trellises that look like roses are growing out of it, even though the roses are made out of metal.

Doug Drohan 14:52

Right, right, right. Yeah, that's cool. That's really cool.

Eldad Kaganov 14:56

Um, and then as far as indoor, like exterior and exterior, exterior and interior work, yeah, absolutely. Um not only can we use different metals, uh different steels, rather, we can also use different finishes.

Speaker 2 15:11

Okay.

Wrought Iron And Corrosion Explained

Eldad Kaganov 15:12

So often time um outdoor we try to use as much pure iron or a very low carbon steel. So currently we just got an order in for uh 1006, which is an extremely low carbon steel. The reason why um is because carbon is what actually reacts with the oxygen and causes oxidization. Okay, so when you see you know 300-year-old railings around a historic church and it's not really rusted with holes in it, that's because it's made out of wrought iron, which has little to no carbon in it. That's kind of what we're trying to do. We try to make a lasting quality product.

Doug Drohan 15:58

Got it. Okay, so that's a good good point. So sometimes you see older, whether it's a church or whatever, and there's rusted railings. But then, so the wrought iron, which I never knew what wrought iron was, because you know, like in the the old um like Soho district in Manhattan, they talk about the wrought iron buildings, and you can take a magnet and it'll stick to the columns, even though it might have been painted over. But that was one of the architectural kind of distinctions of Soho is that the wrought iron pillars that they had. So, but I never really knew what wrought iron was. You know, there's iron wrote. I mean, so what is wrought iron? You're saying it's just has less carbon in it?

Eldad Kaganov 16:36

Well, so as a metal, wrought iron basically just means it's worked. That's what wrought means in old English.

Intro/Close 16:44

Okay.

Eldad Kaganov 16:45

So, but the reason they call it that is because they had to basically work it from this huge uh billet, it would be called, um, that was you know, three, four, or five hundred pounds, and they had to work out and refine it until it was the size they needed to use.

Speaker 2 17:03

Okay.

Eldad Kaganov 17:04

Um this wasn't generally done by blacksmiths, this was actually called um this was done by another trade called puddlers because they'd be using a puddle furnace.

Doug Drohan 17:14

Oh, okay. What's a puddle furnace?

Eldad Kaganov 17:18

Um well, it's basically a huge furnace, uh, probably about the size of my building, um, where they would stick in uh both uh natural ores that come out of the ground um and iron scraps basically, and it would re-melt it into this huge bar that was, you know, like I said, three, four, or five hundred pounds, depending on the place. And then it would be worked under um either hydraulic or steam hammers into a usable size.

Doug Drohan 17:54

Okay. Okay. So, you know, it's interesting. Um, I mean, there are so many different forms of metals in different ways, like, you know, um, you know, we call forged steel, and or I guess as you said, brought means worked or forged. Um, but then the alloys and what what is an alloy? A lot of things got to take you back to chemistry class. But I think it's great that you're able to combine, you know, the the science and the chemistry of of metals and turn it into something decorative and more importantly, useful, uh, that you know a homeowner is you know would be probably keen to look at and have something distinctive about their home, whether it's indoors or outdoors. That's very cool. So what yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Eldad Kaganov 18:38

We we kind of have to know the chemistry a little bit because if somebody if somebody, for example, wants um you know uh a wrought iron railing with a with a brass handbar, now we have to figure out how to make it work because if you just put the two on top of each other, you end up with something called galvanic corrosion, which is when dissimilar metals cause one another to corrode quicker.

Speaker 2 19:07

Okay.

Eldad Kaganov 19:07

So we now have to find a neutral metal um that we can use to combine the two.

How To Reach EK Artisan Blacksmith

Doug Drohan 19:14

Wow. Wow, pretty cool. So, Alba, how do people get in touch with you? Like, what's the best way to reach you if they're interested in in um you know learning more?

Eldad Kaganov 19:24

Well, um, they can either reach me out on Instagram at ek underscore artisan blacksmith, um, or they can shoot me uh shoot me a call, text, whatever they need, um at 845-533-3294.

Doug Drohan 19:48

And email is LDAT at njsteelbarron.com. Yes, sir. And L Dad is E-L-D-A-D, and your last name, Kaganoff, is K-A-G-A-N-O-V. It's a nice Irish name. And uh just kidding, obviously. But uh yeah, no, this is very cool, very interesting. You know, I I've had my uh my run of therapists and realtors on the show, and it's it's great to have someone like you, uh, an artisan, um, a blacksmith at that to join us and and sharing you know what it's all about. And I love it. So thank you very much for being on the show.

Eldad Kaganov 20:28

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I I enjoy I enjoy beautifying the world.

Doug Drohan 20:35

Yeah, that's why I do what I do. I like that. I enjoy beautifying the world. That's that's a nice tagline. Excellent. All right, well, Chuck's gonna take us out, and you and I will be right back.

Intro/Close 20:45

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com. Or call 201 298 8325.