Still Building America: Calling young metalworkers

I’d like to introduce a new project I’m working on for The FABRICATOR®, “Still Building America.” I will continue to write my normal bimonthly posts about welding in addition to starting a new series focusing on youngish (under 35), skilled tradespeople, manufacturing entrepreneurs, fabricators, blacksmiths, machinists, welders, hot rod builders, and metalworkers of every type in the U.S.

We continue to be told that this generation doesn't want it, is lazy, has no ambition, and won't "make" things. But over the last few years I've had the chance to travel across this country quite a bit, and the people I've met, the things I've seen . . . they tell me that's simply not the case.

We still build, and I believe awareness of that fact is a huge part of bringing more work back home. I want to feature guys and girls who do this full-time, people for whom it's not a hobby but their life.

When I first posted about this on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, a few people in each platform seemed to take offense at what was seemingly perceived as an arbitrary age cutoff, that I was somehow disrespecting the experienced crew by focusing on a younger crowd. Nothing could be farther from my intentions.

I love the older guys I trained under and continue to work with and learn from, but they came up in the heyday of blue-collar opportunities. I’m 36 and was lucky to catch one of the last major waves of apprentices accepted into the Big Three. I’m not saying any age group had it easy, just that, overall, my generation and the next has had fewer and fewer chances as high schools cut shop classes, vocational institutions dried up, and big industry slowed down apprenticeship programs.

But rather than strapping down in a cubicle, so many young people are seeking out industrial training and, in some cases, taking it upon themselves to learn on their own, the hard way. I’ll be featuring those who have four-year university degrees and own fabricating companies, like 25-year-old Craig Montgomery; engineers turned welders, like 34-year-old Ben Anthony; 20-year-old fitter/welder John Hogsett; metal artists like 32-year-old Jesse Purdom; and Jared Craver, who has carved out a niche crafting old-school branding irons. We’ve got paint and body experts, machinists, and ironworkers onboard too.

If you know of anyone else who fits the bill and would dig being featured, have him or her e-mail me at josh@browndogwelding.com with "young skills" in the subject line. Thanks, it’s gonna be rad!