I hope I’m posting in the right place! I contacted DMS a short time ago about doing some bladesmithing, and a couple of weeks ago I took a tour and joined as a member. My understanding from that tour is that I need to find a time to meet with one of the smithing reps and get cleared to use the forging tools and trusted not to harm myself/others/the building. I am quite new to smithing so this would also help me make sure I’m not missing anything.
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@coloneldan Teaches a lot of the prereqs for blacksmithing, maybe you can do a 1:1 with him?
There are generally classes every week or so and open forge is every month, so you can sign up for them when they’re open.
Thanks for tagging me. There are several of us that teach blacksmithing and can qualify you on the tools.
I usually teach a class every Tuesday night, but I’ve been slammed of late. The important thing is to get familiar with the tools and observe our safety rules.
Show up to the open forge this Sunday at 10:00AM and introduce yourself. Even though there are no more slots in the class we call it open forge because you don’t have to be in class to use the tools and forges.
You won’t get the same instruction or materials but you can bring your own.
There should be some blacksmiths there to help you. You can also come to the blacksmithing meeting on Tuesday night at 7PM
Thank you! I will try to come on Sunday. I don’t have any steel of my own with me at the moment. I wanted to get cleared before I grabbed some. I also don’t have my own hammer yet because I suspect my arm strength will change a lot during the first few months/years of smithing and the ideal weight for me today won’t be ideal later. I have an apron, gloves, and both eye and ear protection.
Most of my prior experience is stock removal because the only tools I had access to were really intended for jewelry making. I’m looking forward to learning to use proper forging equipment.
A couple of things. 1) We have a lot of hammers and tongs at DMS. You won’t need your own right away. 2) We have some scrap steel you can hit on if you want to try it. 3) Once you get familiar with the tools at DMS you can decide what you’d like to own.
Initially, Harbor Freight sells some cheap ball peins and cross pein hammers. You can do alot with those two hammers. As far as tongs go I recommend this outfit online.
Or you can go out to Kennedale and get them here along with some good knife steel:
They sell tongs, too, but come and see what DMS has before you spend any money.