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Open Studio Categories
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blacksmithing & metal
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Beginner Courses |
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Blacksmithing 101
An ancient craft that is experiencing a modern artistic revival, blacksmithing is a fun and productive hobby that can allow you to create many tools and products for use around the home. In this introductory workshop, students will learn the basic tolls of the smith, how to set up a portable forge using coal or charcoal, and then practice basic blacksmithing skills including drawing and bending metal. Each student will make his or her own classic blacksmith product: a forged s-hook. This is the perfect class for the beginning blacksmith.
You may also add to your Intro class experience a Blacksmithing Open Studio session the day after or another day in the future. Click here for the Form.
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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. Course Fee: $375 - Supply Fee: $25 Location: Folk School
Instructor(s): Wade Buck or Atticus Keesling
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Intermediate Courses |
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Forging a Dragon Head Hook
New intermediate classes are making their way to the Michigan Folk School! Want to further develop your blacksmithing skills and learn to bend metal in the shape of a character….in this case a dragon. With this new class students will learn more advanced techniques such as isolating mass, chisel work, team striking, and use of ball fullers to create an amazing hook out of 1/2” steel! These techniques can open the door to an infinite amount of possibilities toward your forged design. After your skills have been developed we can discuss opportunities to generate an income as a blacksmith/bladesmith!! Other intermediate classes such as tong making, chef knife, and fire poker also available!
This is an intermediate course and foundational skills are required to enroll. You may register if you have taken Blacksmithing 101, Hand Forged Knives at Michigan Folk School, or have similar experience elsewhere (please email here to discuss relative experience prior to registering).
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Forging a High-End Chef’s Knife
In this class, we will make a 6”-7” hidden tang Chef's Knife using a variety of new and old techniques. The blade will be forged from 01 steel (a high-grade tool steel) with a native sculpted wooded handle (cherry, walnut, maple, or oak). You will learn design & layout, forging, grinding, handle the selection, shave horse work, edge geometry, and more will be covered in this intensive three-day course. An emphasis will be placed on forging as closely to the finished shape as possible.
It takes many hours at the forge developing the skill to make high-quality knives and this course is designed to help focus your attention on the details of bladesmithing. Each participant will walk away with one high-end knife that can be used in the kitchen and passed down as a heritage item. This is an intermediate course and foundational skills are required to enroll. You may register if you have taken Blacksmithing 101, Hand Forged Knives at Michigan Folk School, or have similar experience elsewhere (please email here to discuss relative experience prior to registering). |
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Forging a Fire Poker
Every fire needs a good forged poker to keep that fire burning, the warmth cozy, and the conversation going. Improve your smithing skills by working on chiseling and splitting along with a high skill level of forging and twisting to complete a custom fire poker. Further instruction on body mechanics, tools, and the working properties of hot steel will be addressed, as well as various intermediate techniques, such as tapering, scrolling, twisting, bending, drilling, punching, hot cutting, flat peening, upsetting, and shouldering. In the end, you will walk away with a custom fire poker that will impress your friends and family and leave with you an immense satisfaction every-time you stoke your fire!
Prerequisite: Blacksmithing 101, Bladesmithing
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Crafting Blacksmithing Tools: Essential Tongs
This will be a class that will challenge your forging skills and improve your hammer control. E Aside from a hammer, the other tools in the has of a blacksmith most often are the tongs. Every smith needs at least a few sets of tongs and being able to make the tools that you need at the forge is the best way to master the craft. This intermediate-level blacksmithing course will cover the process to complete a pair of tongs. Individuals will learn techniques such as chiseling, punching, riveting, and complex shouldering. At the end of the 2-day intensive course individuals will have completed their own pair of bolt style tongs for your new blacksmithing kit.
Prerequisite: Blacksmithing 101, Bladesmithing |
