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My partner and I have toyed with the idea of opening the shop up to a select few once in a while. Basically an open forge night where I might do a quick demonstration and then let people get some metal hot to see what its like, We have 7 anvils and 5 forges in the shop so quite a number of folks could play and we could rotate though a pretty big group in a few hours.
We are both active members of the Northwest Blacksmith Association and try to do outreach to draw in people who would like to know more. Andy, my partner is also the beginning blacksmith program instructor at Pratt.
Our group also hosts monthly demonstrations in Longview at the
Cowlitz County Regional Conference Center. If any of you farther south would like to check it out let me know. The next one is Sept 27th and features my good friend Dave Lisch demonstrating how to make a pattern welded knife out of wire rope/cable. You must join our group to attend for insurance reasons (dues are $60/year I think) but then its free to attend the monthly workshops.
Anyway I thought I might see if there was some interest in putting together a Northwest Firearms forge night. I probably would ask for something like a$30 donation which would cover forge fuel, material and snacks, Probably start at 5ish and run till 9 Shop is in Auburn WA out by the Muckleshoot Casino. A few hours is not really enough time learn anything but most still find it fun just to get some iron in the fire and beat it till it looks different. In the past I have limited visitors to the shop to 18 and older but if someone wanted to bring a responsible and well mannered teenager that would probably be fine with the understanding they where your responsibility. Keep in mind this is a industrial shop and pretty much everything in it is capable of scaring you for life or killing you.
There would be no drinking while people are playing in the fire but maybe in the last hour or so we might have a few growlers for folks who are done playing in the fire and just want to visit.
20-30 people is probably ideal, I could probably host 50 but that gets a little hectic. If a weekday night did not work for most folks I might also consider doing it on a Sunday afternoon.
Anyway for starters I just want to gauge interest. If it seems like there are enough folks who would like to see it happen then I'll try and firm up the details.
We are both active members of the Northwest Blacksmith Association and try to do outreach to draw in people who would like to know more. Andy, my partner is also the beginning blacksmith program instructor at Pratt.
Our group also hosts monthly demonstrations in Longview at the
Cowlitz County Regional Conference Center. If any of you farther south would like to check it out let me know. The next one is Sept 27th and features my good friend Dave Lisch demonstrating how to make a pattern welded knife out of wire rope/cable. You must join our group to attend for insurance reasons (dues are $60/year I think) but then its free to attend the monthly workshops.
Anyway I thought I might see if there was some interest in putting together a Northwest Firearms forge night. I probably would ask for something like a$30 donation which would cover forge fuel, material and snacks, Probably start at 5ish and run till 9 Shop is in Auburn WA out by the Muckleshoot Casino. A few hours is not really enough time learn anything but most still find it fun just to get some iron in the fire and beat it till it looks different. In the past I have limited visitors to the shop to 18 and older but if someone wanted to bring a responsible and well mannered teenager that would probably be fine with the understanding they where your responsibility. Keep in mind this is a industrial shop and pretty much everything in it is capable of scaring you for life or killing you.
There would be no drinking while people are playing in the fire but maybe in the last hour or so we might have a few growlers for folks who are done playing in the fire and just want to visit.
20-30 people is probably ideal, I could probably host 50 but that gets a little hectic. If a weekday night did not work for most folks I might also consider doing it on a Sunday afternoon.
Anyway for starters I just want to gauge interest. If it seems like there are enough folks who would like to see it happen then I'll try and firm up the details.
