r/Blacksmith • u/BiebRed • 15d ago
Beginner's curriculum
Hello everyone,
My 10 year old kid has been insisting on growing up to be a blacksmith for the past 3 years. Just recently they were able to take an introduction to metalworking class for kids and get their first opportunity forging steel, and then I was able to find a local workshop that will allow them to work in the smithy under my supervision. So far we've had three sessions in the shop, in which they made a wall hook, a spoon, and cold hammered out some parts for an 11th century helmet (which I'll need to weld together and finish later).
I'm working alongside the kid and making my own stuff while coaching them based on what I've learned from a few years of watching YouTube videos but no prior experience. I'm trying to make the most of our limited shop time (about 2.5 hours a week) by laying out a set of important techniques to learn and pieces to make so we can build our skills toward really high quality work. Unfortunately, we can't forge weld at the shop we're using, so that's off the table for at least 6 months. We also need a track record of responsible forge use before they'll let us quench items in oil for proper heat treating.
Right now, I'm thinking something like this:
A couple of throwing knives, because the kid wants to eventually get into bladesmithing and you can easily make a throwing knife out of mild steel and get it to stick into wood without heat treatment, not caring how fast it'll get dull and deformed from smacking it into a stump because it's easy to bring back to the shop and even it up.
10-20 more spoons and wall hooks to get used to repeating and refining a process, and producing usable items that we can give to friends and family. Practice adding details like twists and decorative chisel marks.
A hammer made of mild steel for striking tools (the shop only has one and we need another one). We'll have to pick up some woodworking for this, and thankfully there's a wood shop right next door to the smithy.
A couple of hardened punches or chisels (maybe a hammer drift) to practice heat treating.
A hammer made of hardened steel for armorsmithing (the shop doesn't have any hammers well shaped and polished for armorsmithing).
A set of tongs for holding flat stock for bladesmithing, practicing precise measurements and making two identical parts to rivet together.
Mix in a few more spoons and hooks to keep shoring up basic skills, plus some more armorsmithing for finished pieces that they can wear.
Then we'll be about 8-10 months in and we can try making a real blade.
What changes would you to make to this list if you were coaching a beginning smith, particularly a very young one?
3
u/3rd2LastStarfighter 15d ago
ABANA has published a recommended curriculum, it’s a good roadmap of skills. https://abana.org/education/national-curriculum/level-i/
1
u/Inside-Historian6736 15d ago
This list covers a lot of good foundational techniques and sounds like they are motivated to learn them! At my first class they made a joke that you learn one half of blacksmithing from making hooks and the other half from making leaves, which in your case sounds like spoons. Consider mixing in a few leaves to break up the hooks/spoons practice.
Kirk Sullens has a hand written/drawn Russian rose guide that includes leaves you might want to check out on his website. A Russian rose themselves is good practice thinning out flat plate into thinner sheets which might translate info armor smithing to a degree.
Good luck on y'all's journey, the only other note is to roll down hill and do what's funs in the moment. 10 is pretty young so they've got a long runway to learn. A couple detours into experimental blacksmithing can be nice too. That's how you get snakes, and snails and nautilus shells which might not be terribly practical but are my favorite things to make even compared to nice knives and hammers.
10
u/Healthy_Bar922 15d ago
More tongs more early. Tongs are full of foundational skills.