Bridgetown Forge offers a variety of classes, for both a novice and the experienced smith: forging Japanese-style knives, tool-making, tong-making, and basic smithing. Heat-treatment, steel selection, and metallurgy are also extensively covered. Hofi’s ergonomic forging method, which allows for fast, accurate forging with reduced effort, is taught throughout, and the emphasis is on practical, straightforward, and effective shaping of steel. Our shop is well-equipped with multiple forging hammers, extensive grinding and polishing setup, gas and coke forges, and an individual forging station for every student. Nine students can be fully accommodated in any class.
New classes are being developed on a continuous basis, and classes to be offered in near future include: power hammer work, forging a cleaver, forging a sushi knife, hammer-making, and axe-making. The goal is to offer a complete curriculum covering the many different skills of a blacksmith.
(NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP SESSIONS: Thursday, November 9 and 23, 2023) Please Note: Open Forge is always on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, from 5:30 to 8:30pm. Students with previous class experience can work on their own projects in Bridgetown Forges Forge, practicing their craft, and forging elements, tools, and utensils of their choosing. […]
(NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP SESSIONS: Thursday, November 9 and 23, 2023) Please Note: Open Forge is always on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, from 5:30 to 8:30pm. Students with previous class experience can work on their own projects in Bridgetown Forges Forge, practicing their craft, and forging elements, tools, and utensils of their choosing. […]
(DECEMBER MEMBERSHIP SESSIONS: Thursday, November 7 and 21, 2023) Please Note: Open Forge is always on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, from 5:30 to 8:30pm. Students with previous class experience can work on their own projects in Bridgetown Forges Forge, practicing their craft, and forging elements, tools, and utensils of their choosing. […]
(DECEMBER MEMBERSHIP SESSIONS: Thursday, November 7 and 21, 2023) Please Note: Open Forge is always on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, from 5:30 to 8:30pm. Students with previous class experience can work on their own projects in Bridgetown Forges Forge, practicing their craft, and forging elements, tools, and utensils of their choosing. […]
Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 4 pm This class is designed to introduce a beginner to the fundamentals of smithing techniques: drawing down, upsetting, cutting, slitting, punching, twisting and bending. This class seeks to impart a solid understanding of the various ways hot steel can be shaped with just a few simple tools. The students are […]
Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 4 pm In this class, we will forge a practical, beautiful Damascus knife using a 3/4″ diameter steel cable. Students will fuse the cable into a billet, and will proceed to forge it into a knife. The top quality steel cables consist of allows us to make a high-performance […]
Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 4 pm In this class we will forge a 4-inch blade, camping/utility knife from a single bar of high-carbon steel. This type of knife is very solid and versatile, and can be used while camping, for daily use, or in the kitchen. Skills learned include hand-forging a blade and […]
Saturday 9am – 4pm In this class, we will make a Kiridashi knife, which is an essential implement in any Japanese carpenters tool kit. This versatile knife is used for marking, planing, whittling and any other woodworking task where controlled, precise work is required. We will start with a flat bar of high carbon steel, […]
Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 4 pm In this fun class, you will forge a 6-inch, rocking knife out of a high-carbon steel bar, stamp it with your initials, clay-harden it to produce a Japanese-style differential heat treatment, temper it, and hand-hone it to a razor sharpness on a water stone. Rocking knives are […]
Saturday and Sunday 9:30 am – 4:30 pm In this class, we will forge an 8-inch blade cleaver out of a bar of high-carbon steel, stamp it with your initials, harden and temper it to have a tough back and a hard, durable edge, attach a hickory handle to it and hone it to razor […]
Saturday-Sunday 9:30 am - 4:30 pm In this class, we will forge a double-edged sword, using a combination of hand-hammering, striking with a sledgehammer, and pneumatic power hammer work. In spite of having been apprenticed to a sword maker in Japan, I have long resisted offering a sword class. However, I confess that as a […]
Saturday 9:30 am – 4:30 pm in this class, we will forge various spoons out of a stainless steel bar, creating unique, beautiful and useful kitchen tools. We will employ both hand hammers and a pneumatic power hammer, allowing for a very varied and productive experience. This is a fun class, which also imparts a […]
Sunday 9am – 4pm In this class, we will forge a Japanese carpenter’s hammer, a very handsome and handy implement, found in the toolbox of every carpenter in Japan. Deceptively simple in shape, it is properly balanced and weighted, which makes it suitable for many tasks, such as driving chisels, hammering in nails, or tapping […]
Saturday and Sunday 9:30 am – 4:30 pm The making of tools has always been one of the mainstays of a blacksmith’s set of skills. Not only is the smith expected to make most of their own tools — traditionally, a smith would make the tools for every other trade and craft, from a nail […]