Uncategorized | February 10, 2011
Beginning Blacksmithing Class
Five-Day Class (Mon.-Fri.)
Tuition Cost $950.00
No Experience Necessary
Limited to Two Students Per Class
Lessons will cover shop layout and safety, tool selection, fire and hammer control, basic metallurgy and heating treating, shaping, cutting and joinery. Some of the techniques you will learn are a mortise and tenon joint, a forge weld, an upset, a square and a round taper, a twist, and how to slit and drift a hole.
Projects throughout the week may include forged nails, hot cut chisel, decorative hook and flux spoon. There will be ample time to design and complete a project of your choice during the last two days.
Each step of the way the instructor will describe what will be done next, give a demonstration, then supervise as you do it yourself. This class is designed to give you a successful start.
Toolsmithing Class
Five Day Class (Mon.-Fri.)
Tuition Cost $1,000.00
Intermediate Level
Limited to Two Students Per Class
Every blacksmith should have a hammer and a pair of tongs to use what they have made themselves.
This class focuses on making tools for the forge shop. Meallurgy and heat treating of steels will be addressed as well as steel selection from salvaged metal to stock tool steel choices. A variety of tools including a cross pein forging hammer, turning and bolt tongs, hot cut chisel, slitting chisel and drift, round and square punch, bending fork, jigs, assorted vise and anvil tools will be covered. Students will have some input as to the selection of the tools made throughout the week and all tools made by students are theirs to keep.
Primitive Knife Class
Five-Day Class (Mon.-Fri.)
Tuition Cost $950.00
Intermediate Level
Limited to two Students Per Class
The American frontiers of the 18th and 19th centuries were both demanding and remote. The common work-a-day knife of the hunter, trapper and pioneer was often not crafted by a knife maker but rather hastily made by the common blacksmith using simple materials on hand.
In this class each student will forge, heat treat and finish two primitive knives using similar designs, materials and techniques of the frontier crafted to contain them. The basic bladesmithing techniques learned in this class can be used by the students to forge other more refined knives on their own.
Journeyman Class
Twelve-Day Class (Mon.-Sat, two weeks)
Tuition Cost $2,850.00
Advanced Level
Limited to One Student Per Class
This class is approached differently than the five-day classes that the instructor offers. First, he only accept one student at a time for this session. This will allow the student to progress through the list of journeyman skills, registered with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training United States Department of Labor, at their own speed. This can be best accomplished on a one on one environment. Second, a sample grille or gate will be designed and built to use as an example of one’s accomplishments as a blacksmith. It is this final project that will show your level of skill as a blacksmith to a potential employer or give you the confidence that you are at the level that one would expect to be called a journeyman.
Class Schedule
Beginning Blacksmithing
The first full work week,
Monday-Friday of each month
Primitive Knife Making or Toolsmithing
Call for Schedule or See Website
Journeyman Class
Scheduled at a time convenient for the student and instructor
No classes in December
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
