2026-04-17 - Forging a Viking Flint Striker
Class Details
- Schedule: April 17-19 (9:00 am-5:00 pm CT)
- Location: This is an in-person class held at Vesterheim Folk Art School.
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Instructor: Tom Latané
- Level of Instruction: Intermediate to Advanced
Description
Looking at photographs of period flint strikers, students will come up with their own designs. To make their fire steels, participants will forge weld high carbon steel (necessary for creating sparks) to wrought iron (the common ferrous material throughout history, softer than steel for creating ornamentation) to prepare stock for one or more fire steels. Once forged, the iron portions will be decorated with designs created by drilling, chiseling, stamping, and filing.
Photo credit Castlerock Museum, Alma, WI
Prerequisites
Forge welding experience required.
Supplies
Students should bring as many of the tools listed below as they can. Students can get by without a complete set of these tools by using school tools, or by sharing tools, or by altering a design to do without a particular tool.
There will be a $15 materials fee paid directly to the instructor.
- Favorite forging hammer – The Folk Art School has several sizes of hammers but if you have your own that feels comfortable, bring it. There will be a lot of hammering.
- Lighter hammer for fine work and a heavier hammer for coarse work.
- Hammer with a domed face – this helps drive slag out from between layers being welded.
- Tongs – The Folk Art School has a lot of tongs but not many lighter or more delicate tongs. Most are heavily constructed, designed to hold up to the abuse given them by beginning classes.
- Pick-up tongs for pulling pieces out of the forge and placing them in the tongs that will grip them for control during hammering. Long reins help keep hands away from the flames and thin or pointy jaws help get hold of the piece in the forge. These tongs are generally too light for holding metal being hammered.
- A selection of tongs down to a size to hold 1/8” thick material. Folk Art School tongs will be adequate for holding the raw stock, but as the pieces get smaller your own tongs will likely be an advantage.
- Small chisel for pricking up burs in the steel for securing to the iron.
- Fine center punch.
- Other punches and small chasing tools for decorating the sides of the fire steels. You could bring some tool steel to make what you need. Feel to pursue inspiration. Tom often prepares small tools with square and rectangular ends that are hardened and tempered so they can be quickly ground to make what is needed.
- Files – These are something Tom prefers not to share as they are consumable, and he can’t buy new files after every class. It is difficult for a school to keep decent files because of the abuse of beginning classes.
- Half round coarse file 8-10”.
- Needle files for adding ornamentation. Half round is very useful. A square file and triangular file would be handy if piercing a design. If you don’t have needle files, then a slim taper file (triangular file for sharpening hand saws) would be good for small detail on the perimeter (but not piercing).
- Jeweler’s saw frame and coarsest blades (size 7 or 8) for piercing.
- Hand drill and bits up to ¼”. The Folk Art School has a drill press and bits but having a drill at your work station would be convenient if you plan to do any piercing.
- Abrasive paper or cloth in several sizes, 240-100 grit.
- Sharpie extra fine point for drawing on clean metal.
- Silver pencil for drawing on oxidized metal.
- Paper and pencil for sketching designs.
- Favorite welding flux if you have something you like better than borax, which the Folk Art School provides.
- The Folk Art School will provide vinegar to clean flux and scale from projects and Anhydrous borax for welding.
Additional Supplies
All students should have the following safety equipment:
- Safety glasses
- Hearing protection
- Natural fiber clothing (smolders rather than bursting into flame or melting to skin)
- Glove for holding tools over hot metal
Tom does not normally wear gloves because they interfere with his control of the hammer and the manipulation of tongs. However, a soft leather glove to protect the hand holding a punch from radiant heat is very helpful. Please note, welder’s gloves are terrible for handling any blacksmith tools.
The forge welding we will do spatters molten flux and slag across a person’s front at about waist level. Wearing a leather apron or clothing that is not going to be a great loss if riddled with small burn holes is a good idea. It would also be good to have a dust mask for when we sweep up.
Enrollment Deadline
March 27, 2026