Hand Forged Knives: Intro to Bladesmithing

With blacksmithing making an popular reemergence throughout the country, many people have sought out the experience of making a blade. We heard your comments and spent considerable efforts to lay the foundation for serious bladesmithing courses designed for the professional and the folk-minded. While this 2-day intense class serves as a introduction to bladesmithing, it was designed to also introduce students to the basic, hands-on craft of blacksmithing. This is a foundational course and will serve as a prerequisite for many future intermediate and advanced bladesmithing courses including adding knife handles, finishing, advanced heat treating, and forging Damascus blades.

Your experience begins with instruction on tools and equipment, material selection, body mechanics, design considerations, forging techniques, basic heat treating principles and finishing methods. This will be a very active class, with strong emphasis on hands-on. It will also feel similar to an intense 2-day cardio workout including heat, noise, sweat, and physical exertion. Each student will work from a steel blank and, through forging, profiling, beveling, heat treating, and finishing, create their own personal hand-forged blade.

Please make sure to keep your quality expectations in-check, as this is a beginners course. It takes many hours at the forge developing the skill to make a high-quality knives and this course is designed to get you started on that path.

No experience necessary. This class is for 18 years and older. You may use this course to satisfy the prerequisite for Blacksmithing Open Studio.