Blacksmithing: Make Your Own Tongs

Saturday, January 11, 2025 
10:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Tuition: $84  Materials: $30

You will experience the transformative process of heating rigid metal to a bright glow and shaping it into a useful set of tongs! You will learn or review the basics of forge management and safety. Students will learn to use more advanced tools and techniques like drifting, riveting, basic grinding and tempering. You will work with steels of various sizes and carbon content to make useful hardware that will last for generations. Be prepared to have fun! 

This class is ideally for those with previous blacksmithing experiencel. Please call the Ely Folk School if you have questions about experience. 

Students need to wear rugged, non-synthetic clothing and tough boots. The Folk School does provide aprons, gloves, safety glasses and earplugs, but do bring your own safety equipment if you have it. You can bring your own bag lunch including something to cook over our charcoal fires or order in from nearby restaurants.

About the Instructors: The Forging Community is a Duluth-based blacksmith collective offering classes and custom metalwork on London Road. Forging Community exists to educate, to the best of our abilities, the general public about the art and craft of metalsmithing. They will teach all who wish to learn and practice the craft with us, deepening and broadening our knowledge of the art, thus ensuring the survival and sustainability of metalsmithing into the future.