2 Days of Intensive Blacksmithing for Tuition/ 16 Hours of Instruction/Saturday and Sunday, April 28 & April 29, 9AM-5PM

Tuition: $375, materials included

Class Limit: 6
Where: Hasbrouck Carriage Barn (Behind Baird’s Tavern). We will use portable forges. Weather Dependent.

Instructor: Adriaan Gerber

Mr. Gerber is a full time blacksmith. He refers to himself as a “bladesmith”, as much of his creative output results in high quality knives, axes, and swords that he sells world-wide. These objects are entirely created by hand and without power tools, although most recently Mr. Gerber has employed the use of an antique trip hammer for the purpose of preparing the metal billets he uses in his work. Mr. Gerber’s home smithy is located in Lamoine, Maine, near Acadia National Park.

Show up to class with cotton clothing, no synthetics. Long sleeve shirts, no coats with nylon shells, safety glasses are required, and you might start out with a 2 1/2 or 3 lb. drilling

hammer of your own( after you swing this a number of times it will feel heavier so I prefer the 2 1/2 lb. weight). There will be hammers and other tools to complete the class.

Day 1 / 9-5PM, 8Hours: Introduction to Safety, Materials and tools of the trade. Tapering. Drawing Out Metal. Heating, bending, twisting and shaping. Make a drift tool for punching holes. Tempering. Using the Cross Pein Hammer or drilling hammer to forge a basic s-hook. Decorative Bending. Setting down using half-faced blows. Make "S" Hook and/or "J" Hook. Forge a Set of Skewers or a fireplace poker with fancy handle(s).

More hot-cutting and splitting. Separating split parts for better access. Smoothing out cuts using the vise. Tapering to a square point. Drawing out metal. Forging square taper to octagonal and round. Flattening and twisting. Forging out a meat fork. Upsetting. Reducing metal width to form a neck. Preventing folds. Flattening. Drawing Down, bending and filing using the vise.

Day 2/ 9-5PM, 8 Hours: Using knowledge from Day 1 forge out a spatula (to be used for forge welding). Preparing for Welding. Upsetting and Scarfing. Fire Control For Welding. Using Flux. Forge Welding. Forging a spoon. Preparing for Welding. Upsetting and Scarfing. Fire Control For Welding. Using Flux. Forge Weld a Ring.

See Adriaan Gerber in action in this video (click):

Click: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid

Credit cards and checks accepted. Reservations: Call (845) 986-3236, or send an email to: whs@warwick.net