100 years of heavy metal: Morris County iron crafter closing up shop on Rockaway River

BOONTON TWP. — From Prohibition-era Manhattan to its present home along the Rockaway River, Tringali Iron Works has thrived − and helped to forge local history −through the backbreaking art of metal crafting. The family business was founded in Tribeca in 1923 by an immigrant blacksmith from Italy. For the last quarter-century, his grandson, Bernard "Bud" Knudsen, has carried on the tradition out of a 200-year-old shop on an idyllic spot here in Morris County, where the river spills over a wide, gentle waterfall.

"This location is insane," Knudsen said during a visit to the shop on North Main Street. Now, he's preparing to leave it all behind.

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After 50 years of firing, pounding, welding and bending iron and steel into gates, fences, window guards and more, all with artistic flair, Knudsen is ready to hang up his hammer and enjoy retirement. A final sale began on Jan. 1 and will continue as long as there is leftover inventory to offer.

"I have commitments that will probably take me through the spring and into the summer, but I'm not taking on any more big jobs," said Knudsen, 65, who has already purchased a retirement home in Delaware.

Tringali Iron Works put its stamp on NY history

A trained architect, Knudsen and his cousins took over the business from his father and uncle, who had succeeded his grandfather, the ironworks' founder. Liborio Tringali was an experienced blacksmith and farrier (a craftsman who shoes horses.) He took over a shop in Lower Manhattan in 1923 after emigrating from Italy to Brooklyn.

One could almost trace the history of New York from the products forged by the Tringali Iron Works, which operated out of a location that was a city block in length.

Early work there included the fashioning of metal "diamond plates" to cover New York's wooden floors and prevent fires "when it was a booming industrial city," Knudsen explained. Later, in the 1940s, Tringali put up rails and fire escapes on brownstones. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the crime rate was rising, the business answered demand for iron window bars.

World War II also brought work for the Brooklyn Navy Yards. The war was an "all-hands-on-deck" time for the entire family as Tringali pitched in to support the Allied efforts. Knudsen's mother, Jean, "became sort-of a Rosie the Riveter," he said, referring to the iconic poster that encouraged women to enter the workforce on the homefront.

During the lengthy Statue of Liberty renovation that started in 1986, Knudsen said he was one of "maybe a hundred" metal shops contracted to work on various aspects of the project. Tringali's contribution was to create "artsy cafeteria tables" for the national park facility.

Eventually, the business thrived by manufacturing ornate tree guards for city streets, work that continues to this day.

Rockaway River paradise

After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Knudsen's cousins withdrew from the business and the original shop − now a neighbor to Robert De Niro's Tribeca Films studio − was put up for sale not long before the 9/11 attacks. It was eventually purchased by "a celebrity buyer" that Knudsen declined to name. At that point, he had begun his search for a new location across the Hudson.

"It kind of fell to me to keep it going," Knudsen said.

He found the shop's new home by accident. During one scouting trip, he was detoured from Parsippany into the Boonton area. He found his way onto North Main Street, where he discovered his future riverside paradise and bought the circa-1820 building.

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"I just fell in love with the place," he said.

Over the years, Knudsen learned the site had been used as an oil depot and as a factory for making buttons and munitions during the Civil War.

"You can still find buttons and bullets outside in the ground," Knudsen said.

One-of-a-kind bargains

His remaining inventory features a variety of antique metal grates, frames and window guards, including some saved from renovations of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York's Financial District. There's also a good supply of glass-and-metal artwork he's tinkered with of late, including custom "wizard sticks" − decorative staffs that "people really enjoy."

On a recent visit, a customer, Bridget Burke Weiss of Boonton, was making a return trip, shopping for an ornamental window grate for her home.

The items she bought during her previous trip, including handcrafted spinners, were intended as gifts. "But I ended up keeping them," Weiss said.

"I saw the sale sign and I was so sad, because it's such a neat space," she said. "It's magical. I hope something neat comes in here. It's got such a great vibe."

Heated metal and heavy muscle

Knudsen's main workshop is equipped with hydraulic cutting and bending machines that allowed him to shape his increasingly artistic metalcrafts without the need for heated metal and heavy muscle. The building sits on multiple stone foundations with walls as thick as 3 feet in some places.

"People always ask me about flooding," Knudsen said of his spot above the notoriously flood-prone Rockaway River. "These foundations are built right into the riverbed. So we don't get a lot of flooding. I got an inch or so during the last rainstorm, but everybody on the river does."

He still uses his grandfather's old anvil to pound certain pieces into shape. The fourth generation of the business was represented by his niece, who worked there as a welder for three years.

Now, he's on his own at the shop, except for his dog and shop mascot, Paddy. The building was "put quietly on the market," Knudsen said, but has not yet been listed.

Business is still good, he added. Continuing referrals bring steady work from Manhattan, and local walk-ins commission additional projects.

But a half-century of pounding is enough for Knudsen.

"It's hard work, backbreaking work," he said. "When I realized we were coming up on 100 years, I wanted to do that. That was very special to me. But now that we made it, I'm ready to do something else."

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com

Twitter: @wwesthoven

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Century-old Morris County iron crafting business is closing up shop