Demo-to-GoWe come to your teaching-place and give a live, distanced, demonstration of the Craft and the Art of Blacksmithing to your class, answering questions as they arise, dispelling myths and misconceptions as we go.
A blacksmithing demonstration can be an interesting, even exciting and inspiring, adjunct to studies of:
The Iron Age
The Medieval period
Early Europeans-in-the-Americas
The History of Technology or of Engineering...
We will bring all that is necessary to demonstrate the sorts of things that a blacksmith might do to make tools, household implements, farm equipment, nails, (and because there's almost always the question, swords), or whatever seems most fitting for what is being studied.
We are prepared to discuss the making of iron from ore, the making of steel from iron (pre-Bessemer process), annealing, hardening, and tempering... depending on the interests of your students.
The equipment we bring typically consists of:
- A 123 pound anvil
- A coal-fired forge
- A lever-driven double-chamber bellows (good 14th-Century technology)
- A bench with a blacksmith's vise
- A bucket for quenching-water (we can bring the water too, but if there's a spigot available nearby, that's usually a little easier)
- A variety of hammers and other hand tools
We'll need a space about 10 x 15 feet, well away from buildings and their air-intakes. We can work on pavement or on grass. Being able to set up in the shade and have the students in the shade also would be a bonus while the weather is warm, when there's snow on the ground, it is less important.
Most aspects of this experience are negotiable.
This is a privately-arranged class, Demo-to-Go sessions listed below have been scheduled by someone for their own class groups.
If you are here to register for a session, please be sure you are doing so for the right one.
If you'd like to discuss scheduling a Demo-to-Go, please call Carl at 781 81oxide (781 816 9433) after 10am.
Calling is best, emails and texts can get lost in the flood.
[some of the information below is boilerplate, applicable only to our in-house classes, please don't be confused]
Class length is negotiable, but typically 3 hours dates×
Instructor: Carl West
Fee: typically $300 for roughly an hour to hour-and-a-half demonstration
Travel more than an hour from Waltham will be a bit extra per student
There is room for as many as come
Please wear proper clothing for visiting or working in the forge:
closed toe shoes (preferably leather, preferably high-topped. Sneakers are sufficient, sandals, crocs, pumps, mules... are not), natural fiber clothing, long pants that cover the tops of the shoes.
Click here for more safety information.
This class is either: If you're interested in taking Demo-to-Go and it's not on the calendar, please tell us using our Notification-List Page.
Dates and Times:
- not upcoming on our schedule,
- or we've fallen behind in our clerical duties and not entered it in the database.
If you found it on our calendar page, we are planning to offer it on that date.