About Us
Best Fordite Keychains & Leather for everyone!
Fordite is a unique automotive enamel with an interesting history. Years ago, the original layered automotive paint over‐spray was made incidentally, by the now extinct practice of hand spray‐painting production cars in big automotive factories.
The over sprayed paint gradually built up on the tracks and skids where new cars would be painted. Over time, many colorful layers would develop. These layers hardened repeatedly in the ovens where the car bodies would go to cure.
Eventually, the paint build‐up would become a hazard or would obstruct a worker’s ability to perform his job. In many cases the build‐up became too thick and had to be removed.
Some crafty workers with an eye for beauty realized that this unique byproduct was worth salvaging. Fordite is rock hard, super‐cured, uniquely patterned, and can be cut and polished with relative ease!
Our History
It all started in February of 2015. My son and I were trying to kill some time and decided to go for a walk behind our house. Aside from the occasional rattle snake and lizard, there are many interesting rocks. Some of these rocks, when dusted off, provide very vibrant colors. We decided to take a few home and with the tools we have preceded to shine them to the best of our ability. As time passed, I had turned looking for rocks into a bit of a hobby, continuing leisurely to hunt and shine various rocks. I found it very relaxing and an opportunity to escape into my own thoughts for a short while. However, I quickly found myself becoming bored, I wanted something more, I wanted to try other types of rocks, and perhaps more interesting material. I went on eBay to see if I could find something different. I was amazed to see that there were many types of rocks at reasonable prices ready to be shined, molded, sculpted, or formed into something special.
Fast forward to September of 2016, I was shopping on eBay, and I came across a rock that wasn’t really a rock. It was called Fordite. I found it both interesting and unique. I had determined that no one, to my knowledge, had ever tried producing keychains from Fordite and I felt there might be a market for this idea. I purchased a few pieces to chop up and make keychains. Through hours of trial-and-error, experimenting with several versions on how to handle this complex textured material, I developed different techniques and short cuts to form each individual keychain.
Fordite is a unique automotive enamel material with an interesting history. The original layered automotive paint was made years ago, by the now extinct practice of hand spray-painting multiples of production cars in big automotive factories. The over sprayed paint in the painting bays gradually built up on the tracks that the car frames were painted on. Over time, many colorful layers built up on these tracks. These layers hardened repeatedly in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint. Eventually, the paint build-up would become obstructing, or too thick and heavy, and had to be removed. As the story goes, some crafty workers with an eye for beauty realized that this unique byproduct was worth salvaging and thus began the era of Fordite.
My keychains and cufflinks have been sold in over 40 different countries around the world. My works have been featured in museums and art showings in Michigan and Germany.
I hope you enjoy these keychains and cufflinks as much as I have enjoyed making them for you.
