Courses

Have you ever wondered how our ancestors produced sharpened tools of stone like axe heads, knife blades, and arrow points? Learn how flintknapping evolved and how to identify appropriate base materials from which you can produce a variety of sharpened stone tools. This class will introduce the basic techniques of…

Outfit your own blacksmithing tool chest while developing and refining your skills on the forge. In this course, you will create the set of tools needed to become a backyard blacksmith, while simultaneously learning the basics of blacksmithing. Initial tool projects will include tongs and fire-tending tools. Heat treatment, forging,…

Always wanted to try your hand at the forge? This is the place to start and continue to develop your blacksmithing skills. You will be introduced to the basic skills of the blacksmith including safety, fire control, tools and equipment in both a classroom and 'on the forge' setting. Student…

Popularized today by many historical reenactors of the fur trade era, the throwing axe is a weapon that is deeply embedded in North American history. Akin to the hatchet it offers the ability to split and chop wood but is also designed to be used as a hand to hand…

Combining blacksmithing and jewelry-making, this course offers an opportunity for beginning students of any interest to develop their skills as they forge and craft a Damascus ring with a silver liner. Students will begin by forging a piece Damascus steel, a particularly beautiful and ornamental steel filled with folds and…

Highly prized for centuries for its uncanny strength, ability to hold an edge and distinctively beautiful swirling and flowing patterns, Damascus steel is art: forge welding at its finest as you combine different types of steel, forge them through fire and hammer into one solid billet. Like a baker uses…

This course is intended is an extension of the Viking-Era Smelting course. Take your raw bloom the next step and make it into useable steel. Students will learn how to consolidate the bloom, fold it and forge weld it until it becomes a useable high carbon steel bar from which…

Crafting the "tollekniv" (whittling knife) is a rich cultural tradition of Norway, kept alive by many Norwegian smiths and knifemakers today. Knifemaking explores three common craft traditions – metal work, leather work and wood work. Using Norwegian knifemaking techniques and shared characteristics amongst Norwegian knifemakers, learn to fit a hand-forged…

We’re no stranger to taking materials back to the source: woodworking courses regularly head out to harvest birch; basket makers can be spotted in local ditches cutting willow, sweetgrass and cattail; and we even have the occasional sheep on campus for the fiber folk. But taking metalwork straight to the…