Sundays at the ForgeSunday Afternoons are a special time for many people, a time to relax, a time to set aside the cares of the work week, a time to hit hot iron with a hammer.
We've shuffled our course schedule around a bit and are pleased to announce Sundays at the Forge, a series of laid-back, atelier-style, demonstrations and simple workshops paired with Open Smithy time.
Topics will vary, ranging from Aluminum Casting with the Coal Forge to Explorations in Foldforming, from Knife Sharpening Techniques to Twisting the Afternoon Away. Some topics will repeat regularly, such as our monthly Striker Team Practice, some topics will come up every few months, and some just once a year.
What they'll have in common is that they will generally be light treatments of topics that can be covered in a more social, less intense, manner than our regular classes. Students will be more free to make their own mistakes and learn by doing so. Sometimes students will share forges, rather than having a private workspace. There will be more opportunity to get to know your fellow smiths, and there may be a pot-luck or an outing for ice cream or ethnic food included in the day's schedule.
SatF sessions will run from 2 pm to 4 pm, and will be followed by at least 2 hours of Open Smithy time for those who want to keep rolling and put what they've learned into practice right away.
SatF sessions will be $35 for the 2-4 pm session; a subscription can be purchased for $100/mo (pro-rated for months when we're going to be short of available). Subscriptions to repeating SatF topics, such as "Striker Team" and "Exploring Foldforming", can also be purchased on a separate basis at $75/quarter.
Reserving Open Smithy time on Sundays will be like reserving any other OS time; people who have reserved in advance have priority. SatF subscription holders will enjoy a discounted rate of $20 per hour for SatF OS, but may be asked to double up on a forge if demand requires.
2 hours per meeting $35
Full Description, Dates, and Registration Information.
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We'll be participating in the Innovations of Yesteryear festival along with various other artisans, entertainers, and educators. Come visit!
We'll be doing some demonstrations along with famed knifesmith Shane Stainton, who we hope we'll see teaching some classes at Prospect Hill Forge one of these days. Shane hails from upstate New York, so we don't get a chance to see him around here very often. Come on down, meet the man, and decide whether you want to take a class with him.
Just upstream from the Weeks Memorial Footbridge, we'll be demonstrating traditional blacksmithing techniques, and the Striker Team will put in an appearance with their two-handed sledge hammers. 
We will be manning the Blacksmith Shop at the Topsfield Fair for most or all of the run of the fair.
Prospect Hill Forge will be 'performing' at the 2009 Blackstone Vally Celtic Festival at the Indian Ranch in Webster MA on Saturday, July 25 from 11am to 5pm
PHF will be demonstrating, but not selling anything, from no later than 10am (and maybe earlier) until 4:30.
The WMAA Open Studios takes place each year on the first weekend of November. The 76 artists of the WMAA open their homes and studios to the public. Works of all media imaginable are demonstrated, displayed and discussed.
In this class we will make a fire-steel from high-carbon steel and learn to use it.
In this class the student will start by learning the basic moves of
knife-making on a piece of mild steel, ending up with a letter-opener
if all goes well, and then move on to a piece of high-carbon spring
steel and make a small, simple, one piece knife, suitable for cooking,
eating, or general utility use.
In this three hour class you will be introduced to the basic smithing
techniques of hammering, drawing-out, cutting, bending, and twisting.
Using these techniques and a coal-fired forge you will bring a piece of
iron to an incandescent heat and with anvil, hammer, and tongs create
one or more cooking skewers or a decorative and useful 'S'-hook.
3 Days of Hot Metal at The Ashokan Center, Olivebridge, NY
This class will focus on the basic fold-forming concept of working sheet metal by folding, working, and unfolding and its application to hot iron.
We will introduce Mr. Lewton-Brain's methods of working sheet metal by folding, working, and unfolding. There will be demonstration and hands-on work, mostly in copper, which will provide a quick overview of the range of form-folding techniques.
This is a special session of Open Smithy intended primarily for students of our special classes. These sessions are typically scheduled just before or after the classes in question and are intended to give those students a chance to continue their work with minimal interruption.
We opened officially on May first 2007 but our Grand Opening Bash was later in the month, so it seems fitting that our Birthday Party should be a bit late too and the evening of Saturday the 16th of May fits that bill beautifully.
You'll learn how to use punches and chisels to open mouths, punch noses and eyes, and cut ears and horns to make fantastical creature heads with unique personalities.
This class covers the production of a traditional and useful heart-shaped trivet, based on several in the Sorber collection of colonial wrought iron. 
Shane, is this picture the sort of knife you'll be making?
This will be a three day class in which we explore the proper making of a knife, its fittings, and the final finish of the work. We will make a clip point hunting knife with a guard and pommel, with a wooden grip.
In the twelve meetings of this course, you will be exposed to the
basics of the language of blacksmithing. From "smash-it-flat" to forge
welding. There will be practice pieces, exercises, samplers, problems,
and actual projects all aimed at building your smithing vocabulary and
fluency. By the end of the course you should be well on your way to
thinking like a blacksmith.
In this class you will make a pair of simple butterfly hinges, suitable for use on a cupboard, small chest, or box.
In this class we will address the techniques necessary to produce a towel rack, be it wide or narrow, intended to hold an elegant cloth towel or a roll of toilet paper.
This class continues where "A Taste of Blacksmithing" leaves off. You'll
learn more about shop safety and begin to work on forge-fire management, while being guided thorough a series of projects that will begin to build your
repertoire of basic blacksmithing techniques, including:
This class builds on the skills developed in 
This class continues where 
In this class the student will start with a piece of high-carbon spring steel and make a small, simple, one-piece knife, suitable for cooking, eating, or general utility use. This class is intended for intermediate students; there is another class, 
This is more a 'session' than a 'class', it is a chance to work with the technique in general or to spend the evening investigating the variations on a particular fold. Most sessions will begin with a brief demonstration of a particular fold or some aspect of hammering or opening. (if there's something in particular you'd like to see in the demo, make a note of it when you sign up and we'll do what we can.)
Do you have fine kitchen knives that don't seem to cut as well as when you first got them? When you try to sharpen them, do they seem to cut worse, rather than better? 
This class is specifically geared to the production of a simple, elegant and functional candlestick. In the process of making it, you'll cut threads with tap & die, form a tenon, forge pipe, and work with sheet steel.
Learn to make your own jeweler's hammers.
The sizes you want, the shapes you want, when you want.
In this class we will make a tripod for cooking over a camp fire.
In this class we will make a long-handled two-tined fork suitable for cooking at the grille or over the campfire.
We'll be learning to strike and to master, with single strikers and with teams of strikers. Striking directly and with set-tools. This is not so much a class in the usual sense as it is an ongoing practice session. There will be training for new people as they arrive, and practice for the more experienced. The projects we work on will be for the smithy or for sale by the smithy. Accordingly, the hourly rate for Striker team practice is lower than the usual Open Smithy rate.
In this class we will spend more time practicing and refining skills, with emphasis on variation and experimentation. New topics will include: working to a drawing, forge-welding chain, working with/as a striker, two-piece welding (alone and with a helper), heat treating unknown (scrap) metal...
Rudiments IV can be seen as the first four weeks of Basics II.
A chance to work on your own projects or continue on a project begun in a class.