Hot Metal: In conversation with Slaghammers

It all started with a slaghammer: a welder's tool used to chip away excess metal, also known as slag. This Christmas present was the first (and for a little while, the only) tool of the women, trans and non-binary welding collective known as Slaghammers. Founded in 2016, the project evolved out of a back corridor in a mutual studio in Glasgow Autonomous Space and grew into a multi-room workshop in an old powerhouse in Glasgow’s Whiteinch. The original tools – slaghammer, helmet, and arc welder – are still around and in use, passed between gloved and smudged hands during regular community workshops and skillshares.

On a rainy Sunday, we visit the workshop and meet some of the Slaghammers. Ella, a founding member, gives us a tour of the current workshop, where they’ve been based since 2020. Arriving at the industrial site, we’re met with large doors and sleek steel window frames, which we’re soon informed are the product of the first-ever metalwork project completed in the new space. The workshop was pretty barebones when the Slaghammers moved in, and it’s taken a lot of work, fundraising, and patience to get the collective to where it is now: having the resources and space to run external skillshares and organise workshops with local organisations like Rumpus Room and Maryhill Integration Network.

From stools and chains to apple presses and record sleeves, there’s seemingly no limit to items the collective can make. One project they’re particularly proud of is a homemade ring roller, which is a tool used to produce perfect metal rings that, according to the Google Shopping tab, can go for thousands of pounds bought new. Using a car jack, some old castors, and a few bits of wood and welded scrap, Slaghammers figured out how to make the tool for themselves. It’s this thriftiness, this openness to giving things a go, and the desire to simply learn and share knowledge, that seems to have grounded the collective over the years.

“The really nice thing about this group,” says Cam, a welder on-site, “is that it’s just a space to try something out. It’s okay to make mistakes. And we make a lot of them.” The group laughs goodnaturedly. The collective’s intention has always been to create a welcoming space for anyone who wants to learn or develop their skills in the welding trade. They’re keen to provide a point of access and a supportive workshop environment for people who might not be typically associated with or even welcomed in the metalworking industry. 

Image courtesy of Slaghammers

That’s not to say Slaghammers aren’t backed by the wider welding community. Lots of their materials (which can be hard to access, especially for a self-funded workshop) are donations from metal fabrications around Glasgow. As Ella says, “They’re just really sound.”

There’s a real down-to-earth approach to Slaghammers, from their disinterested dismissal of institutions to the care they take in ensuring everyone feels comfortable lighting an industrial oxy-propane torch during the soft metal workshop. We chat to Ella about the collective in more depth in the staff room at the back of the workshop. “We are definitely inherently political,” Ella says. “We want to prioritise making it [the collective] an inclusive space for women, queer, trans and non-binary people, marginalised groups, and people experiencing barriers to workshop spaces – but also, like, we just do metal.” It’s a delicate balance of acknowledging these barriers while also not letting them detract from the real focus of the collective, that is, working with metal alongside others.

And metalwork is a tough graft: it’s hot, it’s sweaty, but it can also be a meditative, tender process. “You know the concept of ‘flow state’? It’s like that,” says Martha, who is also a founding Slaghammer. For some, it is easy to spend hours and hours welding, engaging your mind and your body simultaneously. 

“Strangely it’s both a relaxing and exhausting experience,” Ella adds. It’s about way more than just heating up some metal: there’s measurements, design stages, lots of trial and error, and Slaghammers have created an environment where all this can happen via mutual learning. And, undeniably, it’s pretty hot.

Slaghammers have been up and running for almost ten years, offering their local community an opportunity to be welcomed into the welding world, no matter who you are. If this is the sign you needed to get into your overalls and fuse some metal, trust us – Slaghammers are waiting for you with open arms and a good pair of safety goggles.

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