FORGEDWELD is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business specializing in design and fabrication services to government, defense, and commercial organizations, as well as direct to consumers. We offer a wide variety of products from ornamental and architectural steel, iron, and aluminum (such as gates, fencing, handrails and stairs), to sheet metal forming, plate and tube fabrication and more. Serving Southern Maryland, Northern VA, and the District of Columbia.
MORE ABOUT US
Forgedweld is owned and operated by Steve Rands and Howard Wentworth. Steve & Howard met when Steve was a customer of Wentworth's Collision Works - Howard's previous business. They bonded over shared experience, love of cars and roadracing, and a life spent in service to community and country. Howard was looking for a new venture, and Steve was approaching retirement from the US Navy and looking for a new career.
After teaming up, they collaborated to build a metal fabrication business that included an intern/apprenticeship program in the skilled-trades to benefit the local community - partnering with the James A. Forrest Career & Technology Center of Leonardtown, MD. The idea was to assist other area businesses to address the skilled-trades gap and source new workers, while preparing young adults additional opportunity to start rewarding careers. They hope through their efforts make a difference in their community.
Steve Rands
Steve’s passion for the skilled trades started as a young boy who loved building things, dismantling anything with screws to see what was inside, and turned professional when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy shortly after finishing high school in Austin, TX. In the Navy, he was trained to operate and maintain mechanical equipment on nuclear propulsion plants, earned a college scholarship, and became a pilot flying H-60 Seahawk helicopters. Throughout his career, he has lived all over the world, deployed six times including twice to Afghanistan, and three times to Iraq, and retired from duty at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD.
Steve holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, as well as a Master’s in Human Systems Integration from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a certificate in Small Business Innovation & Entrepreneurship from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Over the years, Steve has had an avid interest in all things motorsport. This has included a brief stint in amateur motorcycle roadracing, as well as adventure motorcycling, 4x4 rock crawling, and auto roadracing.
In addition to performing the creative design for Forgedweld, Steve is also a working sculptor whose works can be viewed on Instagram @SteveRandsArt and at RandsArt.com
Steve and his wife Beth live in Mechanicsville, MD.
Howard Wentworth, Jr.
Howard Wentworth, Jr. spent the past twenty eight years in the auto collision industry, learning every aspect of the business. He started out in auto refinishing at the local vo-tech high school, then attended college at Vale Tech in Blairsville, Pa. Howard is a certified welder, auto structural repairer, and has earned many more certifications from corrosion protection, and painting, to metal shaping and fabrication. Howard has managed or owned body shops for 23 of the 28 years he spent in the industry.
Howard has been married to Marsha Wentworth for 19 years, and has two boys, Justin and Brandon. He was very active with his kids, coaching youth sports as they grew up, and was a founding board member of the Leonardtown Wildcats Youth Football & Cheer. He has always loved giving his time to help others and volunteer. He is most proud of the volunteer work he has done with the Dr James A. Forrest Career & Technology Center, helping further develop the same auto body class of which he is a graduate. He likes to be a positive role model for people who are eager to learn.