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A Tween's First Taste of Blacksmithing
(ages 11, 12, 13)

The discovery of iron and how to work it changed human history. Tools, weapons, and daily life haven't been the same since. This is your "tween's" chance to learn to control one of the basic elements of modern human life.

In this class he or she will be introduced to the basic smithing techniques of hammering, drawing-out, cutting, bending, and twisting. Using these techniques and a coal-fired forge your child will heat a piece of iron to brilliant incandescence and with anvil, hammer, and tongs create a decorative and useful hook designed to be driven into a post or beam.

This class is not limited to tweens (Yes, Mom or Dad, you can take the class, too), but we do try to make sure that the tweens outnumber the older students. The material presented is similar to that in our regular "A Taste of Blacksmithing" and "A Teen's First Taste of Blacksmithing" classes, but with less detailed lecture content, to better suit younger students, and a simpler project -- a blunt-ended drive-hook.

Enrollment is limited to four students, so that they don't have to share tools and workspace, and each student gets more working-time and more attention from the instructor than in the teen or adult versions of the class.

Gift Certificates for A Tween's First Taste of Blacksmithing are available.

one meeting 3.5 hours with a 1/2 hour lunch break.    dates&times

Instructor: Carl West
Fee: $100 per student
Maximum 4 students, one per forge

Prerequisite:
Students will be 11, 12, or 13 years old, Fed, Watered , and Well-Rested.
*** The student's knuckle-to-floor measure must be at least 23.5" ***
Measure from the first knuckles to the floor with the student standing normally (no shrugging).
In this class we cannot safely accommodate (by stacking up enough stuff to stand on) students with a knuckle-to-floor measure of less than 23.5"

Please wear proper clothing for visiting or working in the forge:
- closed top shoes
(Preferably leather, preferably high-topped. Sneakers are sufficient... but sandals, crocs, pumps, mules... are not. If you can see the skin of your foot, or the foot of your socks, it's not good enough.)
- natural fiber clothing
(Synthetics are a risk because: IF a HOT thing touches them it's likely that the material will melt and stick to your flesh, making the burn even worse than it would be through a natural fiber.)
- long pants that cover the tops of the shoes.
(To keep hot coals and bits of steel from getting down into your shoes. Which I hear is a bunch of No Fun.) Click here for more safety information.

If you fall ill before class, do stay home.
And as soon as you realize that's what is going to happen, please CALL 781 81 oxide (781 816 9433) so we know not to wait for you.

Dates and Times:
If none of the dates below work for you (or are already full), we suggest you
 Add yourself to the Notification List for this class.
(The notification list gets emailed soon after classes are put on the schedule.)

Sunday, April 19
2:00pm to 5:00pm
(2026)

When you loaded this page, there were 3 Student spaces left in this class.

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Monday, April 20
1:00pm to 4:00pm
(2026)

When you loaded this page, there were 4 Student spaces left in this class.

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Wednesday, April 22
1:00pm to 4:00pm
(2026)

When you loaded this page, there were 2 Student spaces left in this class.

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