"OK . . . I took 'A Taste of Blacksmithing' or 'A Forged Bottle Opener" and I really enjoyed it.
Now what?"

There are several different paths you can take after you take A Taste:

Path 1.) The Rudiments Series - Building a vocabulary of blacksmithing skills

                 
You can continue on after "A Taste..." with "Fire and Hammerskills" and our 12-week series of Rudiments classes ( Rudiments I, II, and III) which will expose you to most of the basic techniques of blacksmithing.

We also have Rudiments IV, V, and VI to further refine your skills.

"Fire and Hammerskills" is a project-free session, that is to say that we take an unfortunate piece of stock and simply ruin it while learning and improving hammer control and technique and getting better at fire management. 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.

Comitting to take Rudiments I, II, and III classes is a bit cheaper than taking the same "Rudiments" classes individually, but it's more of a time commitment. If scheduling is a problem but you know you want to take all three Rudiments and you're willing to pay the cost for all three up front, we'll schedule you into the Rudiments classes as our mutual convenience allows.

Path 2.) Knives - Focusing on a specific set of skills

     
If your interest is specifically and solely the making of knives, we have several knife classes in our catalog.
If you feel you did well in Taste, you could take Nothing but Knives. In three meetings we have time to get into the details of the forging, shaping, and heat-treating of a blade. We make simple one-piece knives from automotive or railroad-car coil spring. These classes are offered many times a year.
The more hammer-and-fire-practice you have, the better your knife is likely to be.
Not So Simple Knives is for more advanced students familiar with the spring fuller and able to do some amount of woodworking on their own time, outside of class. We offer this class when demand is sufficient.
Knives, Knives, and more Knives is eight meetings of starting, and ocasionally finishing, a variety of different style knives. Different blades, different handles. We offer Knives, Knives, and more Knives once or twice a year.

Path 3.) Open Smithy - Making your own stuff

You can take advantage of our Open Smithy hours and work with the techniques you know so far and learn on your own. OS (Open Smithy) is a chance to practice what you've learned, work on your own projects, and keep your smithing skills from getting rusty (heh, 'rusty', see what I did there?) while you are between classes. Some students have chosen to use OS to learn on their own, using their own research and reading as their guide. We recommend this approach for doing at your own forge, but if you're paying by the hour for forge-time, it's cheaper per stuff learned to actually take a class. Even if you do have your own forge, taking the Rudiments Series will give you a serious jump-start. Or you can entertain yourself by climbing the learning curve on your own. Up to you.

Path 4.) Fold-Forming - A whole other game

     
Not strictly a blacksmithing technique, Fold-Forming is a fascinating and relatively new (early 1980's) way of working metal by hand; folding, deforming, and unfolding, leading to forms that are often very organic even while demonstrating their very strong geometric origins.

We offer these classes once or twice a year; Fold-Forming to introduce the basic concepts using thin copper, and Fold-Forming II where we apply many of those same techniques to heavier iron sheet, and Exploring Fold-Forming is often a part of our Sundays at the Forge series.