Seral forges enduring cutlery from sustainably sourced materials.
A pair of friends who are passionate about the process.
Mike and Chris spent the spring of 2021 moving the forge to its new home in Healdsburg.
(also: Chris and Mike met at a brewery. While the group was discussing beer trends, Chris and Mike bonded over their enthusiasm for coffee roasting and their shared exasperation of ephemeral physical objects.)
About Benz:
Mike Benz hails from the Hudson Valley. In his early twenties, he worked as a deckhand on a fishing boat (the very same boat where his parents met) where he quickly gained an appreciation for the art of filet. Around the same time or perhaps a bit later, Mike took up homebrewing and turned his hobby into a career by working at breweries around New York. To pursue his interest in craft beer (but really to follow his now-wifey who works in wine), Mike relocated to Sonoma County in 2014. The many friends he’s met since moving to California (and the many others that live elsewhere) inspired him to make things with purpose.
About Chris:
His mother lived in a large house just outside the town of Greenbow. They made money by renting out rooms to travelers. One of their guests was a young Elvis Presley. He liked dancing to Elvis' music and his leg braces gave him a unique dancing style that would inspire Elvis's "hip dancing", for his song "Hound Dog". One day, a group of bullies was throwing rocks at Him, and one of them cut his forehead. Jenny told Him, "Run Chris run!", which he did, only to prompt the bullies to chase him on their bikes. As Chris struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart. Once he was free of them, Chris was able to run incredibly fast. Chris would never wear leg braces again, and was able to run anywhere he wanted to after that.
One day, while running from some bullies, he interrupted the local high school's football practice by running across the field faster than all the players. This feat caught the attention of Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who was at the practice scouting football players. After his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Chris received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama, where his speed helped them win several games. He played for five years and wore jersey number 44, which is believed to be a reference to his birth year. He was later named to the All-American team and got to meet President John F. Kennedy at the White House. When asked by the President how he felt, Chris (having drunk about fifteen Dr. Peppers) gave an honest answer: "I gotta pee."
At his college graduation in 1967, Chris was approached by an army recruiter who asked if he'd "...given any thought to his future". Soon after, Chris would join the United States Army. On the bus going to boot camp, Chris met Benjamin Buford Blue, a young black man from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, who went by the nickname "Bubba". Bubba told Chris about his family history of cooking shrimp and how he had planned to buy his own shrimping boat after getting out of the army. Bubba explains to Chris that he loves all kinds of shrimp, and makes a long list of different types, with Chris being the only one to really listen to him. Chris did well in the army as he followed orders well without distraction. Chris himself was shot in the buttocks during the firefight and recovered in an army medical center in Saigon. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan later became angry at Chris for cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and rendering him crippled.
In June 1972, Chris was invited with the US Ping Pong team to the White House, where he meets President Richard Nixon, who offers him a room to stay in at Watergate Hotel. That night, Chris was awakened by a group of people with flashlights breaking into an unlit office. Mistaking it for a power outage, Chris calls security guard Frank Wills to inform him about the break-in, inadvertently initiating the Watergate Scandal and leading to Richard Nixon's resignation in August 1974. In that same year, Chris was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant.
Later Chris was visited by Lieutenant Dan who, just as he said he would do on New Year's Eve of 1971, had come to be Chris's first mate. For several weeks, the two had no luck catching shrimp. However, things changed when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen. Chris's boat was the only one left standing and they found themselves with a monopoly of shrimp. Under the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, they soon became very wealthy. Apparently having faced his demons during the storm, Lieutenant Dan thanked Chris for saving his life in Vietnam, and Chris assumes that Dan (without actually saying so) made peace with God.
Chris's new-found loneliness leads him to take a run "for no particular reason". At first, he decides to run to the end of the road, then across town, then across the county, then all the way to the Mississippi border. Eventually, he criss-crosses the country several times over a span of three years. Chris attracts media coverage, and eventually, dozens of followers initiating and inspiring what would become the jogging craze.
After all that running was done, he decided to open Seral Wood & Steel with Benz and has been making exceptional cutlery ever since.
Follow our journey.
