Grizzly Iron, Inc.

Grizzly Iron, Inc. began as Grizzly Welding and Custom Fabrication in October of 1987. Rodger “Grizz” LaBrash started the company after he had built fencing for the home of the contractor he was working for at the time as a superintendent. Russ Horton, the contractor, bought Rodger his first welder to complete the job. He continued working for Horton Construction for some time while performing welding for side work.

In October 1987 Rodger officially started Grizzly Welding and Custom Fabrication. Grizzly performed many different small fabrication tasks from gates, fences, railings anything that involved steel and welding. Grizzly Welding worked in the off road industry in the early nineties on jeeps and race cars and trucks. The business continued to grow and expand into larger shops.

In 1996, Rodger was asked to build a driveway gate that complimented a pedestrian gate from France. This gate, which took a month to complete, had Rodger employing blacksmith techniques such as stake repoussé. This gate was what lead Rodger to move the business into forged and higher quality ironwork. Today, almost every product that leaves the shop of Grizzly Iron, Inc. has some forged ironwork even if it’s just a handle, clavo, or cane bolt.

In 2002, Rodger lost his wife Jami to breast cancer after a five year battle. Rodger supports the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in his spare time. Jami helped Rodger start the business and performed many of the office tasks while she was working a full time job and into her retirement after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Rodger always dreamed of one day having Jami working full time for Grizzly.

Today Grizzly Iron, Inc. is still a family run business with Rodger and son Jason working to design, fabricate, and install our client’s request for high quality ironwork. Rodger performs many of the blacksmithing and design tasks while Jason works with clients from design to installation. Jason grew up in the business working in the shop during summers and afternoons learning from the bottom up.

Grizzly Iron, Inc. continues to improve and grow into one of Arizona’s largest blacksmith shops. As the clients or projects have become larger, quality has never been sacrificed.