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Bladesmithing-NESM

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MichaelBikel

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
379
Location
CT
Recently I bought a grinder from a fellow who seemed pretty industrious. We got to talking and he mentioned the New England School of Metalworking has bladesmithing courses. I looked it up and it turns out the place is in Maine, 15 minutes where i'll be camping for 3 nights this December. Now there are no courses going on around this time but I was looking at the pricing for most courses and its around $100/day plus material fees. I guess if you are new to the world of knife making its probably worth all that money, but since its so far from home (CT), unless i'll be up there I can't justify spending the cash.

Now, that being said, I have a friend who works with a blacksmith weekly or bi-weekly and he has been pushing me to find a job working with my hands. Since I have some free time in December and my girlfriend lives near their shop I could very much justify apprenticing with them for a week or two, doing some grunt work in exchange for some bladesmithing lessons. The only downside to this is, if I end up wanting to stay longer it may be a hassle with scheduling/timing since I live in another state 1.5 hours away and I start another semester of school in the spring...They do magnificent work btw

So I guess what I am wondering is if anyone knows of a center or group/institution or a forge works in Connecticut. I have done extensive searching but have not really had much luck with it other than finding smiths that really just do railings and such. I am located just outside Bridgeport Connecticut.

Let me know if you guys have any info for me or maybe just some general advice. Thanks guys!

-Michael
 
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drivesitfar

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 23, 2013
Messages
36,063
Location
Pacific Northwest
Michael: there are a few guys that like vises and anvils that are members here that live in your area that might see your thread to give you some leads. until they do here's some knife bling for you to see if you look at this thread. i think Junebuggy might have passed on to the big blacksmith shop in the heavens, but as you can see he hasn't posted in a while, but he does (did) have some AWESOME TALENT.

here's the link and post up if you like it to keep his thread alive if you would.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=286785&highlight=Blacksmith

good luck
 
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gte718p

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Mar 12, 2009
Messages
3,977
MichaelBikel said:
Recently I bought a grinder from a fellow who seemed pretty industrious. We got to talking and he mentioned the New England School of Metalworking has bladesmithing courses. I looked it up and it turns out the place is in Maine, 15 minutes where i'll be camping for 3 nights this December. Now there are no courses going on around this time but I was looking at the pricing for most courses and its around $100/day plus material fees. I guess if you are new to the world of knife making its probably worth all that money, but since its so far from home (CT), unless i'll be up there I can't justify spending the cash.
Click to expand...

A $100 day doesn't sound to bad, if and only if it is a small class. For an 8 hour day that is $12 or so and hour. You are going to burn through a not insubstantial amount of gas, be using $20k-$150k worth of equipment you didn't buy, and compensating an instructor for their years of knowledge and experience. Seems like a bargain to me actually.
 
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MichaelBikel

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
379
Location
CT
gte718p said:
A $100 day doesn't sound to bad, if and only if it is a small class. For an 8 hour day that is $12 or so and hour. You are going to burn through a not insubstantial amount of gas, be using $20k-$150k worth of equipment you didn't buy, and compensating an instructor for their years of knowledge and experience. Seems like a bargain to me actually.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that it's not a fair price, the problem is the price considering it's 4 hours away in one direction. Now if it were down the road or an hour away I'd be all over it, and I'm actually going to call them to see if there is anything going on while I'm there for a few days in December. I totally agree that for the tools, learning and experience it's worth.

Thanks all for the info- I will check out those links
 
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