BUCYRUS – James Patrick is passionate about preserving a piece of the past.
Patrick, who has taken over operations at Bucyrus Copper Kettle Works Ltd., is officially the owner of the longtime factory on S. Walnut St. But he prefers to call himself “the caretaker.” The man responsible for carrying on the copper-kettle-making tradition in town.
“I just want to bring the company back to life again,” said Patrick, a blacksmith who ended up buying the business in January from former owner and longtime employee Steve Schifer. “I just want to make the tours a little more professional and focus on that and the history.”
Patrick, who had been doing forging and welding in his spare time at his in-law’s home, said he needed a blacksmithing power hammer so he stopped by the shop and talked to Schifer. He started cutting wood for the foundry until a welding position became available and then “one thing led to another.”
When the Coronavirus pandemic hit last year, however, the copper works business slowed down a bit, Patrick said, and Schifer eventually decided to retire. But first, he asked Patrick if he was interested in buying it. The two were able to work out a deal, which went into effect Jan. 1.
Patrick, a Colonel Crawford High School and Pioneer graduate is also a history buff who serves on the board for the Historic Lyme Village in nearby Bellevue. He said he remembers taking a tour of the company – known back then as D. Picking & Co. – as a youngster.
The business was founded in 1874 by Jacob Geiger and Daniel Picking who wanted to produce the popular apple butter kettles to sell at their hardware store. Soon their product line expanded to include cheese kettles and Tympani bowls – the shells of drums used by orchestras, especially in Europe, Patrick said.
To this day, a handful of skilled craftsmen still hammer and shape the copper into apple butter kettles, candy kettles, moonshine stills, old-fashioned coal hods and dozens of decorative pieces. Even shepherd’s hooks and pots and pans circa 1900’s are forged in the original two-story building.
“It’s going good so far,” said Patrick, who also works as a boiler operator at the Timken Company in town. “Usually January and February are the slowest months, but a lot of this is done without advertising. There are a lot of family businesses and hardware stores that buy our products and then sell them too.”
Every finished piece carries a touchmark or stamp, usually under the steel rim, indicating its Bucyrus origin, Patrick said. The shop these days also keeps busy, he said, with custom work, and is able to repair, clean, and refurbish antique kettles and other family heirlooms.
Down the road, Patrick said, he is thinking of expanding by adding a gift shop so that visitors to the Copper Kettle Works can not only witness the copper-making process but also pick up a memento to take home. After all, it’s considered to be the last hand-hammered company remaining in the U.S.
And that’s one way to keep the history going. In a town known around the world for creating copper gems. Gleaming pieces made by hand-stamped with pride. “We’re just trying to carry on a tradition and eventually find someone else to pass it on to,” Patrick said.
