Fire and HammerskillsIn this class there is no project per se, it's a chance to work on the skills and knowledge needed for lighting and running the fire, and to work on (improving) hammer technique for use in class and on personal projects. There will likely be a sidebar on choosing and using tongs.
We will do a _lot_ of hammering.
We will work on joint-safety, efficiency, power, control, and hammer-choice for the job.
We will intentionally make mistakes so that we can see the trouble they cause.
In the end we will have most of a horribly-abused piece of stock to show for our efforts, and a better understanding of our tools, what they do, and how they do it.
This class will be of value to novices who've only had a couple hours at the anvil, beginners who've been working on their own, intermediate smiths who've been at it for a year or two, and any smiths who've been away from the anvil for too long. The more you've hammered already, the better you'll perceive the finer points.
This class is differentially taught, no matter where you are on your blacksmithing journey, there is some aspect in mind or body that can be improved or at least re-visited and refreshed.
Gift Certificates for Fire and Hammerskills are available.
3 hour session(s).
We will experiment with this class to see if it can be one session or needs to be two. dates×
Instructor: Carl West
Fee: $85 per student
Maximum 4 students
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.
This class is either: If you're interested in taking Fire and Hammerskills and it's not on the calendar, please tell us using our Notification-List Page.
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.)
- 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.