Blacksmithing Beginner Workshop Photos

We had Mary from ClassBento come with her partner to take some photos during the last Introduction to blacksmithing workshop we had at Nordic Edge. Mary sent us some photos, and they are great!

Showing some of them here to give an idea of how it is when you come for a day of introduction to blacksmithing with us. Or maybe as a couples activity, a hands-on date, or bring a friend and spend a day doing something fun together.

The blacksmithing workshop is meant as an introduction, a fun day learning some new skills and trying out different techniques. It is not an exhaustive course with lots of theory and skills to master, simply hang out and hit some hot steel! 

Now our teachers love this stuff and are happy to answer questions of course. You can make this more technical, learn about the important things to look out for when hunting for an anvil. The different uses for different styles and weights of hammers, the proper use and sizing for tools used to punch and drift - or you can just enjoy learning about the "lost arts" of blacksmithing and walking away with something you made yourself.

In the blacksmithing workshop, we forge mild steel - not blade steel. This steel is easier to forge and deal with than blade steel, so you get more time hammering, and you start with thicker material for more freedom to shape it using hammer and anvil.

You heat the steel up to about 1100 degrees celcius, then hold your piece of steel with tongs and start working it.

Before any of this there is a safety demonstration to make sure everyone is comfortable, and you get the chance to ask questions until we are ready to start.

Once the forges are on, all steel is considered hot and is not to be touched without tongs. In the photo above you see a student getting ready to start working again. The steel is hot, he has made sure the anvil he is using is free and the hammer is ready.

Forging steps:

The day is structured into safety discussion, blacksmithing process and tools, then quickly onto the tools.

The first part of your day consists of learning how to forge a bottle opener. We have picked one with lots of steps and some tooling involved to give you the opportunity to try different hammers and techniques. 

Below you can see the steps you will go through together with the instructor. This way the group does each step at the same time, making sure we all get there together.

From noon to 1 PM or so we have a lunch break, lunch from a local cafe is included in the workshop.

There is a menu to choose from, they do sandwiches, burgers and poke bowls, kind of thing.

After lunch you have a couple of hours of free forging time - you decide what to do.

Most students make anoter bottle opener, it is much faster this time now that you know what to do. And it is great to reinforce what you have learned, using the different tools for punching, stretching, and drawing out and bending the material.

Or you can decide to make another small project like a wall hook, a little viking ship or similar.

We have people of all walks of life coming for a fun day, doing a bit of blacksmithing. We get friends coming together, couples on an "action date" or someone bringing their parent for a day hanging out and doing something together.

Here you see the step where we "neck" the hot steel using a guillotine tool. This is done after punching and expanding the hole that is going to become the bottle opener, before starting to forge the body of the bottle opener itself. In our case this is purely cosmetical, but it is an important tool in blacksmithing and another process to try out.

The bottle opener is turned 180 degrees every couple of hits to even out the necking, and often held so the corners also get hit in at a lower heat, before finishing this step.

Hoping this gave a picture of what to expect on the blacksmithing workshop at Nordic Edge, and that it made you want to come along and have a go.

At the end of the day you might have a slightly tired hammer arm, a big smile and your very own hand forged project or two!