In his Armada garage, Eric Hemker wears a full face shield, a baseball cap and noise-cancelling headphones blasting anything from screamo heavy-metal music to Frank Sinatra. He used to just spend time out there when he had free time from his full-time gig with General Motors.

Now, though, the garage is his full-time job.

Like many garages in Armada, Hemker’s is filled with Blake’s Hard Cider and tools. The only difference? Hemker hand-made some of his tools from scratch, and the ones he didn’t make himself are uses to create others. That’s because nine years ago, Hemker started watching YouTube videos of blacksmithing and decided to take up the craft himself.

Eric Hemker first got into blacksmithing nine years ago through watching videos on YouTube. (Sophia Lada / MediaNews Group)

Hemk

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