December 2, 201510 yr I'm inexperienced in blacksmithing and I'm looking for an apprenticeship so I can learn how to do it any ideas?
December 2, 201510 yr Welcome aboard Preston glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many IFI guys live within visiting distance. One of the honest to goodness MASTER bladesmiths who make swords was asked how long it took him to make his FIRST good sword. His reply was something like, 15 years. You're operating under a couple misapprehensions: #1 apprenticeships. Not in America outside some specific Union trades. Occasionally someone will call a training program an apprenticeship but it's far from the same thing, in those cases it's called marketing or delusional. #2 Learn to make swords without other metal shop skills? No more likely than learning to pilot the Space shuttle if you don't know how to fly anything. How good a blacksmith are you now? Then master forging blades. THEN learn to forge swords. And NO swords are not big knives it's a whole different world. I'm not trying to discourage you but you need a realistic set of expectations or you're setting yourself up for failure. I know, I hated that part of growing up too, still do. Frosty The Lucky.
December 3, 201510 yr Good Morning, Preston Welcome to this forum. You are in the Hotbed of Blacksmithing in the Pacific North West. North West Blacksmith Association has monthly workshops at Longview Fairgrounds. There are many members in the Seattle/Tacoma area, many more all over the State. Check out their website. There are classes listed. Funny, I didn't see a comment from Preston regarding, SuWords. I guess the crowd is being presumpous, waiting for the dreaded Question. But Preston is a "He", "He" must be wanting to waste his time dreaming of creating 'Excaliber' (at least Excaliber #10). Hopefully he will learn to 'Walk' first. Neil Since he posted this request in the sword section, why dont you think it is safe to assume he is interest in swords? Most people pay attention to the subject a thread is posted to. Not everyone posts everything in general smithing all the time. one could learn from this. You should follow your own advise about paying attention
December 8, 201510 yr Apprenticeships are dead. There are groups in your area, but what the group members do is up to them so swords may or may not be on the list. There area classes all over the US (world) for those who wish to learn. Getting with that local group and attending meetings and learning general metalworking/forging will help you more in blades then just doing blades. If you truly want to do it you will find a way to do so. Ric
December 22, 201510 yr On 12/8/2015 at 8:07 AM, Richard Furrer said: Apprenticeships are dead. There are groups in your area, but what the group members do is up to them so swords may or may not be on the list. There area classes all over the US (world) for those who wish to learn. Getting with that local group and attending meetings and learning general metalworking/forging will help you more in blades then just doing blades. If you truly want to do it you will find a way to do so. Ric Omg Ric Furrer is on this site! LOL you're the whole reason I began blacksmithing. Sorry, that's off topic. Anyways, love your work Ric.
December 22, 201510 yr Josh: You need to check Iforge more often, Ric replied a while back. You can set the site to notify you about new posts on threads or by people you follow. You can have email notices or have them appear on the IFI opening page you set. And Ric isn't the only world class bladesmith hanging with us duffers either. Frosty The Lucky.
December 23, 201510 yr I just learned about the notifications yesterday so I should be more caught up from now on. I've also initiated the forum stalking feature for Ric's profile now that I'm aware of it.
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