Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles DuMond.
Hi Charles, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started putting things together as a kid. I liked to build, construct, and test the limits of any tools I got my hands on. I broke a lot of things, I also fixed a lot of things. My father taught me and my brothers to weld from a very young age. I started stick welding when I was around 6 or 7 years of age. By the time I was 12, I had designed and built my first go-kart.
When I was 20, I moved to Knoxville for college. I thought I was going into ministry, but after a couple of long-term trips overseas, I came back and entered the workforce. I got a job with a man – Frank Campese – the owner of Atlantic Iron in Wilmington, NC. He taught me many skills that I needed to further my career as an ornamental iron fabricator.
After moving back to Knoxville in 2007, I worked in the stucco/cement trade for about 4 years at Southern Stucco. This helped me round out my skill set by helping me understand building construction, substrates, design, and attachment systems.
In 2010, I started working for a well-loved fabricator/sculptor in the area – Preston Farabow. We worked together for about 6 years and during that time I had the opportunity to learn design and form from him. He’s a well-known and accomplished artist and I learned about iron as an art.
I opened my own business in 2013. We specialize in residential ironwork. All of our work is 100% custom. Most of our work is designed by us in-house and custom-fitted to our customer’s needs. We have our own in-house smithy (blacksmith shop) which gives us gives us a high level of custom capability.
Since 2013, we’ve grown to a 4 man operation, and have done some of the largest residential ironwork projects in the Knoxville area. Our largest residence to-date has just over 1000′ of railings – 200′ of which are highly custom in nature
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We’ve had our ups and downs. The high level of detail we aim to achieve can be difficult at times. Not only it is difficult to specify, but it is difficult to communicate and execute. This can make the job tiresome at times, but overall we love what we do, and are blessed to have the opportunities that we have had. We are thankful to say we have worked from coast-to-coast in the U.S.
After Covid-19 struck we started seeing supply-chain problems, and this past year has been especially hard with increased wait times. It has made it more difficult to manage the projects.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We build residential ironwork to what we hope is the highest quality available in the area. We manufacture custom railings, gates (both walk-through and fully automated driveway), range hoods, firescreens and fire tool sets, furniture, lighting fixtures, and like to incorporate other metals into our work such as copper.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Ugh. Work smarter not harder haha. Covid-19 has made everything more difficult. When it first hit, and we were all wearing masks all the time, it took us all getting used to working together without actually knowing what we looked like.
There are customers I had during that time that I never actually saw their faces! That makes working together harder because so many of the cues we get from others are facial expressions. The masks would also muffle words so it was even hard to hear details that customers wanted.
Now, Covid is mostly affecting timeframes and supply lines. We’re seeing extended lead times simply because we can’t get the product. Some of the raw materials that we buy have gone up as much as 375%! That is a big downer to customers as it has driven up our pricing.
Contact Info:
- Email: tuck@dumondiron.com
- Website: www.dumondiron.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dumondiron/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dumondiron
Image Credits
DuMond Iron
