Saturday, January 11, 2025
@
10:00 am
–
2:00 pm
Overview
Are you enthralled by watching glowing red-hot steel being manipulated and transformed? Have you ever wanted to try your hand at blacksmithing? Here’s a chance to learn the safety precautions, basic techniques, tools, and nomenclature to get you started.
What you’ll learn:
- Safety in the blacksmith shop.
- Basic Blacksmithing tool use, techniques, and nomenclature.
- How to avoid the most common blacksmith shop injuries.
- Discuss metal selection and using recycled scrap steels in the forge.
- Learn the fundamental forging processes of hammering or drawing a taper, forging from square to octagon to round and back again, scrolling, twisting, bending, and straightening.
- Learn simple finishing techniques to preserve and highlight your work.
- With no prior blacksmithing experience, you should be able to complete a minimum of two different projects to take home from this class.
What to bring to this class:
Proper attire is mandatory!
- Plan to get dirty! Wear non-flammable, weather-appropriate work clothing in layers; we will be under a roof but working outside. That means no nylon or polar fleece – these melt on your skin when they catch fire. Ensure that the clothing worn is not frayed or excessively loose; trousers should cover the top of your work boots and not have cuffs or anything that could trap & hold a hot piece of steel.
- Wear quality leather work boots; hot steel will burn right through tennis shoes in less than a second.
- Water bottle, this is a 4-hour class, so bring at least one liter, and bring more in hot weather. Blacksmithing is sweaty work.
- A sack lunch or at least a healthy snack. Blacksmithing is hard work. We will have a 30 min break midway through the class to keep our energy up.
- Don’t wear delicate jewelry or electronics; tie back long hair or tuck it into a hat.
- Leave your smartphone on the bench, in the car, or a locker. I’ve cracked more than one smartphone in my pocket at the anvil.
- If you have your own safety glasses or need prescription safety glasses, bring those. Otherwise, safety glasses will be provided and must be worn at all times.
$100.00
Includes class materials