Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thomas Boucher. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Thomas, thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?
From an early age, I was raised with set expectations that I felt I needed to achieve. When you are young that mostly means getting good grades in school. That must have built the foundation to a good work ethic that I didn’t really fully realize until much later in life. I never liked grade school, but now that I am older and have the freedom to direct that focus on something it doesn’t feel like such a burden (most of the time). I still work with a high discipline in other areas even if they are not what I am passionate about. When there is something I want to focus on it just feels easy to stay focussed. I spend a lot of time listening to other makers and inspirational people and I often have their voices in my head about putting in the time and reps to achieve the things I want and if I don’t stay on task then I fall behind and get unhappy about that. Even if I have an inkling of not wanting to get out to my shop I know that in the end if I get to work I’ll be happy with myself. If I don’t then I’ll often regret it so its better to just put on my boots and get out there. It’s not always a struggle though. Since I am working on things I am often passionate about I want to be out in the shop focussed on them.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a traditional locksmith. My mission statement is: ‘Rediscovering and exploring techniques to make handmade locks and keys and sharing the knowledge gained along the way.’ I wish I could say I do this full time, but it’s not really possible. The reality is there isn’t a lot of demand or need for handmade locks and keys. Occasionally, some one will need a key made for an old lock or to have something repaired. There are collectors that will buy newly made locks, just like anyone else buying a piece of art from any other artist. But the craft is no longer needed like it was hundreds of years ago.
I grew up in my father’s shop, in New Hampshire. He started his business as a blacksmith, but switched over to welding when I was pretty young. I have memories of him forging and it was something I wanted to do, but as I got older I was more interested in making money working for him than playing around on the anvil. Much later in 2012, I was engaged and wanted my father to make bottle openers for my groomsmen. I ended up deciding that I should make them instead. Once I started forging I was hooked and I haven’t stopped.
After forging for a few years, I learned about a smith, named Seth Gould, who was making some really neat padlocks and posting progress pictures on instagram. I could clearly see how he was making them. That started the gears turning in my head. Around the same time I bought a DVD featuring Peter Ross making a crab lock. I made the lock from the DVD and I made a similar padlock to one Seth had made. I even finished the padlock in Seth’s shop. Not long after, I was awarded a Traditional Artist Apprenticeship grant along with Kevin Moreau, of Plumb Farm Workshops, allowing me to study with him. The time I spent with Kevin was a pivotal moment in my development. My work and my personal confidence in my work became much better.
I post a lot of my work on instagram, both in progress and finished pieces. I was starting to build a reputation for being known as someone that makes locks, especially during my time with Kevin. I found that I was often getting asked by other blacksmiths what books were there for learning to make locks. There really aren’t many and so I didn’t have a good answer. I have a background in graphic design and more specifically I work for a small publishing company as a freelance art director and book designer. I knew that there was a market for this information so I decided to write a book titled Basic Handmade Padlock.
The success of my first book has led me to teaching classes at craft schools, furthering my reach with this information. This year I will be teaching three classes:
Intro To Key Making at Sanborn Mills Farm
May 4–5, 2024
Basic Handmade Padlock at Center for Metal Arts
May 20–24, 2024
Half Mortise Chest Lock at Sanborn Mills Farm
October 4–6, 2024
In 2021, I began working on a follow-up book (the goal is to publish later this year) that takes the difficultly a step further building on the skills of the first book. My first book was focussed on a riveted body construction padlock. The new books has a few more projects, but is mostly centered around a forge brazed body construction padlock. It has an in-depth look at the ancient technique of forge brazing locks and also teaches you to make basic keys for the locks in both books.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The type of work that I do isn’t for everybody. You have to be willing to spend hours of repetitive work. I spend a lot of time at the bench filing pieces. I get the sense that a lot of people don’t like to file. It’s too slow and monotonous. I like the pace of the work. And the better you get at the processes I deal with the faster some of them become. You also cannot replicate the file finish. It’s a much different finish compared to grinding.
The work that I do tends to have many intricate pieces that all need to be made to fit and that can take some time. You have be willing to sit with a project for a while and make small bits of progression.
I sometimes like to collect inspiring quotes, advice and aphorisms. Things that align with how I feel about my approach to work. I once heard someone say to only focus on the things you want to make. People are going to ask you to make things that they see you making, so if you are making things you are not interested in then you are going to keep being asked to make those. Once I got on the path of making locks and keys I made that my focus as its the only thing I am interested in making. Because of that I built that as my reputation and that is now the sort of work that comes my way. Because this is not my full-time job I have the luxury of keeping it focussed, but as it is building it is going in the direction that I want it to.
If you find something that you are passionate about doing then the first two points that I made come easy. I don’t have any trouble getting into a flow state and spending repetitive hours at the bench filing when this is what I am passionate about. I struggle with not having enough time to spend working on my projects.
Another quote I like, from a maker I am constantly inspired by is from Adam Savage. Adam said
“Remember that you have time to figure out what you want to do. Who you need to be. Where you want to go. You have time to fail. You have time to mess up. You have time to try again. And when you mess that up, you still have time. Just so long as you’re willing to work hard.”
That is similar to something one of my high school art teachers told me. She noticed that I kept drawing a similar thing and she told me to keep drawing that, even if I didn’t know why I was drawing it. Just keep doing it over and over and then when I no longer feel like drawing it move on to the next thing and focus on that. The basic idea is to focus on something you are interested in. Stay focused on it fully. And if your mind changes and you want to go in another direction follow that as wholly as you can until it changes again. Don’t put your attention into things that you aren’t interested in. That is the only way you will find your “thing”. My focus has changed a lot over the years. I’m not where I started or where I thought I would be, but I am happy with where I have gotten because I was willing to work hard and work toward something every day.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
There is never enough time in the day to get everything done. Now that I have a family it is even harder. I used to work late at night, after everyone was in bed, but that’s not a great option for me anymore. I have now shifted to waking up early to get some work done before anyone else has woken up. It’s not quite the same amount of time, but it’s what I have to work with. As long as I am getting some time and making progress that’s the goal. I get frustrated when I’m idle and projects aren’t moving along. Baby steps are better than no steps. Aside from that there isn’t a whole lot I can do other than continue to focus on the things I want to as to not waste my time. I cannot create more time so it’s best to make the best use of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.greasyluckforge.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greasyluckforge/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GreasyLuckForge
