Blacksmithing Courses - Functional rather than artisanal?

[Jelly]

As I'm working through setting up the workshop again, I'm toying with the idea of adding a hearth and anvil.

I've done various bits of forging at taster events and acting a striker for people who actually know what they're doing, but don't really have any significant skill (although have rather crudely made some custom carving tools from broken chisels, which work pretty well).

It occurred to me that a course would be a useful way to get my hand back in and develop a wider range of basic skills, but everything I've found online seems to be "artist blacksmithing" biased.

Not to impune these craftsmen and women, as they're clearly very talented but the emphasis on smaller decorative works rather than on larger functional forgings to specified dimensions, means that I'd still need to do a lot of experiential learning to work out how to do that for myself.

Is anyone aware of people out there offering courses/tuition on this kind of smithing, or organisations who would be able to assist me in learning these skills, more akin to those of a "meister" in a commercial forge, or possibly the smithing skills of a farrier than to decorative work?

 

[TFrench]

As I'm working through setting up the workshop again, I'm toying with the idea of adding a hearth and anvil.

I've done various bits of forging at taster events and acting a striker for people who actually know what they're doing, but don't really have any significant skill (although have rather crudely made some custom carving tools from broken chisels, which work pretty well).

It occurred to me that a course would be a useful way to get my hand back in and develop a wider range of basic skills, but everything I've found online seems to be "artist blacksmithing" biased.

Not to impune these craftsmen and women, as they're clearly very talented but the emphasis on smaller decorative works rather than on larger functional forgings to specified dimensions, means that I'd still need to do a lot of experiential learning to work out how to do that for myself.

Is anyone aware of people out there offering courses/tuition on this kind of smithing, or organisations who would be able to assist me in learning these skills, more akin to those of a "meister" in a commercial forge, or possibly the smithing skills of a farrier than to decorative work?

A friend of mine has done an architectural blacksmithing course at Herefordshire college, he got a lot out of it.

 

[marcros]

Whilst I was looking at having some bits made, I joined a Facebook group called northern blacksmiths to find a few contacts. Might be worth looking, one of the main posters (Gary something) certainly runs courses.

 

[Illy]

I did a day with Julian Wadsworth in Huddersfield. Mine was actually welding but he does blacksmithing as well (large scale stuff too !). He is local to you and was a really good teacher, I can recommend him.