Defence Families' Blacksmithing

This is a one-day basic course designed to bring people family members together to work on a project. The projects are designed to be something that a the family will go on to use together. It is suitable for children aged 12-16 years and adults.

The course covers:

• Workshop safety
• Using a gas forge
• How metal behaves under heat and pressure
• Using hammers and tongs to move and hold metal
• Forming metal using forging processes, including:
  • Forging a point
  • Flattening metal
  • Bending and twisting metal into shapes
  • Hardening and softening metal
  • Making different textures on the surface of the metal

At the end of the course, each pair of participants will have produced their choice of either:

A set of hand-forged family steak knives - Traditional 19th century pattern - Four knives in total - Designed to last for 2-3 generations

OR

A cooking set for cooking over a campfire, including: - Fire poker - Cooking Fork - Cooking Tongs - Camp Fire Tripod - Hooks to hold pots from the tripod over the fire