Custom, hand-crafted perfection.

Welcome to Clay Hill Forge where for over 15 years we’ve created hand-forged gates, railings, firescreens, lighting fixtures and more using a blend of traditional techniques and modern design. Allow us to create a solid, custom-designed piece just for you. With basic care, it will become your heirloom for the future.

Your piece will be forged using techniques developed over decades of study – using solid stock that is durable, resistant to moisture damage and long-lasting. Choose the material that works best for your design: iron, bronze, brass, copper or a combination. Select from various traditional joinery styles to make each collar, joint and bolt head an additional design opportunity. Pick from among a variety of finishes to add that final, and personal, touch.

See what's possible.

Finding it challenging to decide what you need? Browse through this portfolio to gather ideas and get a sense of what we can create for you. Pay attention to items and details that spark a strong reaction – that will give us a big head start in helping you create your design.

Riveted Range Hood

Middle Mountain, Charlottesville VA • 2012

A custom range hood for a kitchen island. The hood was designed to accept a Thermidor brand range hood.

Custom Estate Door

Middle Mountain, Charlottesville, VA • 2012

Custom entry door for private residence with hinge hardware by Clay Hill Forge. Latch made by others.

Brass Art Nouveau center railing panel

Middle Mountain, Charlottesville, VA • 2012

Custom exterior porch railing forged from Naval Brass.

Blue Birds and Dogwood

Earlysville, VA • 2002

An exterior sign bracket for an estate featuring a dogwood tree and bluebirds, all made of steel.

Woven Garden Gate detail

Charlottesville, VA • 2001

Detail of a pair of exterior garden gates that featured a woven detail where loops in the decorative panel passed through them selves and then the adjacent loop. These gates also featured forged songbirds.

Entry gate rose detail

Gordonsville, VA • 2000

Rose detail of an entry gate. A matching garden gate, arbor, and exterior fire screen were also created for this client. The gate was reproduced for a new piece of property for the same client in the Northern Neck, VA in late 2013

Brass portico railing

Carter's Bridge, VA • 2015

Naval brass railing on one of two porticoes at a private residence. There were many railings and handrails made of forged brass for this property.

Medallion pull

Carter's Bridge, VA • 2015

A custom medallion in this case used as a pull for a stone cover. Custom medallions are often used for cabinet hardware, decorative accents, or escutcheons.

Brass Bench Armrest

Carter's Bridge, VA • 2015

Detail of a naval brass bench, one of four that were built for a curved wall beneath a wisteria arbor. Some of the complex joinery for this project is prominently visible in this photo. Each bench featured over one hundred tenoned connections.

Meet the master artisan and proprietor, Dale Morse.

Dale makes unique, high-quality pieces that are as much about form as function. His preferred styles are the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800’s – early 1900’s and Art Nouveau.

For Dale, blacksmithing is a unique blend of old techniques and modern design using a material that, when hot, is as malleable as clay. His desire is to make elegant, well-made, enduring and solid pieces that are pleasing to the eye and perform the purpose for which they were made.

Dale began blacksmithing in 1976 at the age of nine in the forge of the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Franklin County, VA. There, he and his family demonstrated historically accurate aspects of everyday life on a rural 1860’s era tobacco plantation. He then established a blacksmithing shop at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Business administration. He has studied at the Penland and John C. Campbell craft schools in North Carolina, at the Vulkanschmiede in Aachen, Germany and at the studio of Gabrielle Curtolo in San Servolo, Venice, Italy.

About the process.

Ready to get started? You’ve considered the design, materials, finish and placement of your piece. Now, a note about the other important parts of any purchase: time and cost.

Time: We’ll use our experience to help you develop a design that works with your timeframe and budget. However, hand-forging a custom piece is not a fast process. It involves labor as well as initial research, design, tool-making, test pieces and samples. We are looking for clients willing to allow the time needed to make an exceptional heirloom for the future.

Cost: As each piece is made of only solid and durable materials (no off-the-shelf pre-made components) using traditional joinery and forging (both time-intensive techniques), the price will be higher than what you may find at a welding fabrication shop. We are looking for clients who value the hand-made process and appreciate this additional cost and the value it brings to the piece.

We’d love the chance to make a piece that is uniquely yours.

Start the process of owning your own piece of history.

Tell us about your project! Call or send a message using the form below. A quick note: it’s helpful to know about designs you like AND ones that you don’t. Every bit if information helps us design a piece that works for you.

Once we hear from you, we’ll set up a time to meet and talk in more detail so we can review your design and provide an initial quote.