Intermediate Blacksmithing: Crafting Your Own Tools

Unlock the next level of your blacksmithing journey in this course designed for those with a basic understanding of blacksmithing fundamentals and are ready to dive deeper into the craft by learning to make their own blacksmithing tools. Students will forge, shape, and finish essential tools including the cold chisel, scribe, and center punch. This class not only enhances your skills but also equips you with the tools necessary for more advanced projects which will serve you for many projects to come, a true investment in your blacksmithing journey.

What You’ll Learn:

• Forging Techniques: Build upon your basic skills with heat-treatment and metallurgy.
• Tool Design and Function: Understand the design principles behind essential blacksmithing tools and how to customize them for specific tasks.
• Using Junkyard Spring Steel for toolmaking
• Heat Treating and Finishing: Learn the processes of heat treating to enhance the durability of your tools, along with finishing techniques to give them a professional quality.
• Material Selection: Gain insight into selecting the right materials for different types of tools, focusing on properties such as strength, durability, and heat resistance.
• How to make a cold chisel, scribe, and center punch.

Please Note:

• *PREREQUISITE: Blacksmithing Badge 
• Students 16 years of age and up can be unaccompanied; ages 12-15 must have a guardian also enrolled in the class.  Minors must have parental permission and signed waiver (ask us).
• Materials: All materials will be provided, including steel for tongs and punches.
• Safety Gear: Safety gear will be available, but students are encouraged to bring their own gloves and eye protection.
• Bring a notebook

About the instructor:

Steve Dulfer has been a full-time blacksmith for twenty-five years, making furniture, art, hardware, lighting, and architectural pieces. He first came to New Mexico in 1997, apprenticing with local smith Christopher Thomson for three years. Later, he traveled to South Africa, Spain, and Portugal as a journeyman before opening his forge in 2003. He appreciates the antiquity of the craft, the physicality of shaping hot metal, and the long lifespan of the smith’s creations.