{"id":21439,"date":"2025-07-11T19:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T19:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-friends-team-up-to-build-fabrication-and-forge-business-in-historic-aztec\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:05","slug":"longtime-friends-team-up-to-build-fabrication-and-forge-business-in-historic-aztec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-friends-team-up-to-build-fabrication-and-forge-business-in-historic-aztec\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime friends team up to build fabrication and forge business in historic Aztec"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Calvin
Calvin Hargis is the blacksmith for Kinsey Forge, half of Fab & Forge which will be opening in Aztec. (Debi Tracy Olsen\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Sometimes the bonds formed in childhood can become strong as steel.<\/p>\n

Such is the case with the two men opening Fab & Forge at 216 S. Main Ave. in Aztec.<\/p>\n

Alex Kennedy will be focusing on the fabrication side of the business (AK MFG); his partner and co-owner Calvin Hargis is the blacksmith (Kinsey Forge).<\/p>\n

In addition to the force and metal fabrication equipment located on the working side of the building, there will be a retail storefront where Hargis with sell his knives and blacksmithing items, and Kennedy will sell custom signs, gates, parts and other products customers dream up.<\/p>\n

Both men are Aztec natives and met when they were 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been friends ever since,\u201d said Hargis. The businesses the men pursued mesh well, so they decided to go for it and purchased the former feed store in Aztec, one of the town\u2019s historic buildings.<\/p>\n

Kennedy described AK MFG as one-stop metal design fabrication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do everything; basically, if you can dream it up, I can make it. I do custom signs, custom gates and gate inserts, race car parts, UTV parts. Someone can bring me an idea and I can make it reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One sideline that began with a customer request is metal headstones with a powder coating finish.<\/p>\n

On the Kinsey Forge part of the business, Hargis makes a variety of items.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like knives and making stuff, and I\u2019m a huge nerd, too. I like all the Lord of the Rings swords and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is self-taught and has been smithing for 10 years. He was inspired by the TV show \u201cForged in Fire\u201d and spent a decade honing his craft \u2013 \u201cswinging a hammer, messing up, fixing it, then just rinse and repeat over and over again to get it right,\u201d Hargis said. Kennedy saw the market potential and urged Hargis to sell his goods, and they have been selling their work at some of the various craft shows in the area.<\/p>\n

Hargis also teaches blacksmithing classes geared for all ages, and the only requirement is that the student pays attention.<\/p>\n

\"Alex
Alex Kennedy is the metal fabricator of AK MFG, the other half of the newly created Fab & Forge. (Debi Tracy Olsen\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAs long as they\u2019re willing to learn and listen, I\u2019ll have them in the shop at any age. I\u2019ve had students as young as seven to as old as 82,\u201d Hargis said. He is also interested in helping veterans through classes.<\/p>\n

As natives of Aztecs, they are interested in maintaining the historic roots of the building. Kennedy explained that it began as a Buick dealership in 1913, until there was a fire there in 1923 or so. It was rebuilt and became a feed store in 1926 and remained a feed store for close to 100 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot we are doing to keep the history of the building, just rejuvenating it,\u201d Hargis and Kennedy said. They would like to see downtown Aztec grow and want to be part of the business community. Going down a rabbit hole the other day, they discovered that in the past there was a blacksmith shop downtown. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of cool to have that history returned to Aztec Main Avenue,\u201d Hargis said.<\/p>\n

The two men are aiming to have the shop completed by the end of July, and more information can be found on their social media sites, including their two Facebook pages: Kinsey Forge<\/a> and AK MFG<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kennedy and Calvin Hargis open up in former feed store<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77311,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21439\/revisions\/77311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21439"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}