GROVE CITY — One year since Wendell August Forge’s historic headquarters was destroyed by a fire, the company is looking to the future.

Will Knecht, owner of the forge, said the company’s situation is unique.

“It’s an interesting thing in that we have an incredibly solid foundation ... but that we have an extremely blank canvas to pencil on,” Knecht said.

However, it was not simple to get to that position.

Knecht vividly remembers when he first heard of the fire on March 6, 2010.

He was making a delivery to the forge’s store at the Prime Outlets just after 1:30 p.m. when he got a call from craftsman Chris Keck.

“He said, ‘Will, get over here; the forge is on fire,’” Knecht said.

When he finished the delivery, he got a call from store manager Karen Anderson, saying the fire had grown.

Knecht arrived at the site and was horrified by the fire.

At the time of the fire, only about 10 people were at the facility, but as the day went along, many more employees from the forge came by to see the fire.

“Some had cut short vacations to drive up,” Knecht said.

Some employees and firefighters managed to save the forge’s dies.

“If we would have lost those dies, we probably would have been out of business,” Knecht said.

About 3 p.m. many of the employees who were at the fire joined hands and began to pray.

“That was the turning point right there,” Knecht said. “It was a great time of togetherness when togetherness was needed.”

The cause of the fire was an element in one of the forge’s lacquer booths that sparked. A fire prevention device in the booth failed.

“What should have been a few thousand dollars in damage became multimillion,” Knecht said.

When the fire finally was extinguished, the forge was ready to start over.

“We’re in this, we’re going to make it happen, let’s do this,” Knecht said.

A new workshop was set up in five days. The office was set up in two weeks. Both are in the former Cooper-Bessemer building on Lincoln Avenue.

The new temporary flagship store, in the Slovak Folk Crafts building on Route 208 in Springfield Township, was ready in four weeks.

“So many things were like rapid fire,” Knecht said.

Although the forge worked hard to restart, Knecht said the rebirth would not have been possible without the help of many other groups, including Grove City government.

Grove City Mayor Randy Riddle said he was frightened when he first heard of the fire.

“Just the agonizing thought of the potential loss of this business to this community,” Riddle said.

Shortly after the fire, Riddle met with Knecht to ask what the borough could do to help the business.

Knecht also got help from a much larger organization: the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Knecht met with the Penguins on March 4 to discuss making commemorative tickets for the final hockey game at Mellon Arena. The Penguins ordered 20,000 tickets, the largest order in the forge’s history.

The forge on March 5 began planning for the work, but the fire happened the next day.

Knecht expected the Penguins to cancel the order.

“But they had absolute confidence,” Knecht said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Instead, the Penguins offered to pay for the entire order in advance to help the forge get back on it’s feet.

In addition, the Penguins began thinking of ways to promote the newly reborn forge, including putting leaflets in tickets sold at games to let patrons know about the new store and producing a video on the history of the forge.

Knecht said the forge is still working with the Penguins on new ideas.

“They have been to our little company rock stars,” Knecht said. “They are first-class from top to bottom.”

The forge also got help from residents.

“We’d have people show up and say, ‘Hey, what can we do to help today?’” Knecht said.

Despite all of the promotion and support, Knecht said not everyone knows that the store is open.

“Still, to this day, our biggest challenge is letting people know we are still open,” Knecht said.

To counteract this, the forge has increased its reliance on its website, which it has had for 12 years.

“We’re putting a big emphasis on our website,” Knecht said, “because that’s one area where people know we’re still in business.”

The company also has increased its advertising.

And the forge is still planning to open a new workshop and store to replace the old one in fall 2012.

“Lord willing. We have some hurdles to get over still,” Knecht said.

The proposed location is in Springfield Township, across from the Elephant and Castle restaurant.

However, the state Department of Transportation says having the store there would cause too much traffic. PennDOT officials are working with the forge to resolve the issue.

Although some things are changing, other things will remain the same.

“Handcrafted in America, that’s never going to change,” Knecht said.

He said the forge’s headquarters will remain in the Grove City area.

“Western Pa., Grove City is where we want to be,” Knecht said.

Since the fire, the forge has gone from 75 employees to 110 employees. None of them missed a paycheck, and in fact, many were getting large amounts of overtime working to restart.

“That’s nothing short of God’s providential hand. This is truly a story of God working through people,” Knecht said.

The forge, which also has stores in Exton and Berlin, Ohio, will continue to grow, Knecht said.

“The sky’s the limit now, and since the fire, we’re forced to think that way,” Knecht said. “I’m privileged every day I come to work.”