An iron clad trail

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Published on Saturday, March 17, 2018

Archive Photo
James Aitken Waddell about 1905 on his wedding day with Ann Kennedy Miller. He and their four sons moved to Canada from Scotland in 1912. Throat cancer, caused, in part, by foundry dust took his life a little over 20 years later.

Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press

They say a trait will ”run in  the family” and it seems to be true for young Micah Waddell, a 21 year old aspiring metal worker. Way back, nearly 200 years ago a man named George Waddell was born in 1831 at Larbert, Sterlingshire. He was likely the son of an iron worker as his occupation is listed in a later census as an Iron Furnace Keeper.

He had a son named William Waddell in 1853, also at Larbert, Sterlingshire who was listed in a census as a moulder. His son was James Aitken Waddell, born on October 30, 1880 at Salford, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, England. James became a moulder and worked in bronze and brass.  According to family history, James was a “master moulder” in bronze. The family has two  little prancing horses on pedestals that were made by him. The tiny horses were likely an apprentice piece as for a living James made parts for steam engines.

J.A Waddell had five sons, one of whom was John Miller Waddell born in 1907 and he became a farm labourer and took up many occupations in his youth. He became a farmer, then a soldier and a farmer again after WWII. He became a qualified blacksmith at a trade school in Winnipeg. He pounded red-hot iron many times on his farm to make or repair equipment His son, that would be the writer of this article, Kenneth James Waddell, was born in 1948 at Holland, Manitoba. I never did much metal work, nor did my son Michael Kenneth Waddell, father of Micah. The family trait skipped a couple of branches on the family tree until it came to Micah Waddell. The youngest Waddell in this chain has taken up metal work in line with the family lineage.  He welds, blacksmiths and, as of late, he sharpens knives, builds custom knives and repairs heirloom knives. He has begun his business under the name MW Bladeworks.

Photo by Ken Waddell
Micah Waddell, never knew his iron and bronze working ancestors as the trail of steel skipped a couple of generations but he has avidly pursued the trade. Pictured here he has refurbished and applied a new purple and yellow heart  handle to a knife once owned by his great grandfather, John Miller Waddell. The knife was used when the elder Waddell worked at Canada Packers in 1945.