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Online Shakedown
Finding out what it takes to make online blacksmithing instruction work

Your set-up, my instruction.
Unfamiliar tech. Woo hoo!

Teaching blacksmithing has been a face-to-face activity at Prospect Hill Forge for the last 12 3/4 years.
That's out the window for the time being. So...

Let's see if we can do it online.

I expect this to take between 1 1/2 and 2 hours, but I just-don't-know, and can't until we try it.

The project for the shakedown class will be working through the center-vein leaf motif we use for the dragon tail-fluke in Rudiments II, possibly turning it into a pendant or key-fob. And amidst wrestling with the tech questions of running the class at all, we may get to a variation or two.

For this class I have chosen to use Jitsi as the group-meeting tool because it will run on two of my devices, allowing me to have a movable camera and a reasonable console. It seems to require the app for use on Android devices, but will run in Chrome on a Chromebook (more when I know more). Clicking the link above will tell you what you need to make it go on your device.

The student must have: (please read this carefully)

Materials

At least 6" of 3/8" or 1/2" round or square steel, preferably mild.
If it's 18" or more long you won't need the stock-sized tongs.

I'd like to try having a few auditors, not actually forging or participating, though possibly chatting in the Jitsi app.

Ready for an adventure?



2-ish hours    dates&times

Instructor: Carl West
No fee, this is learning time for Carl and PHF 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.

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:

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 Online Shakedown and it's not on the calendar, please tell us using our Notification-List Page.

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