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Making Blacksmith Tools
Equiping your Personal Forge

So, you've gotten yourself a forge, an anvil, some kind of vise, and a big ol'hammer. Now what? You still need some tools.

Fortunately, you have what you need to make them.

We'll be making tongs of several sorts (but not the rivets, we'll do that the easier way), we may make a medium-sized hammer (maybe convert a ballpein to a crosspein), some punches and chisels, a bending 'U' with the notches for diagonal bending, a box-joint plier, a bottom-tool blank/anvil block, a bick-iron, at least one kind of cutting hardy, a spring fuller... many of the tools you are used to finding on (or somewhere near) the bench at PHF.

Exact content of the class is somewhat up to the class members. The focus will be on the mental tools (techniques and approaches to answering your tool needs) more than actually making every physical tool you need.

Some of the tools will require the class to get together and do some gang-hammering Striker-Team-style.

Gift Certificates for Making Blacksmith Tools are available.

12 meetings at least, 3 hours each     dates&times

Instructor: Carl West
Fee: $1200 per student
Maximum 4 students, one per forge

Prerequisite:

Required: A rapid Covid test that day.
Yes, really, we're still asking for it in 2024.
It's still out there, and no fun at all.

Basics 1 or Rudiments I, II, and III... The more experience with hot iron, the better... not all of the work is demonstrated.

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.


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.)

This class is either:
- 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.

If you're interested in taking Making Blacksmith Tools and it's not on the calendar, please tell us using our Notification-List Page.

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