I was first interested in blacksmithing after reading a newspaper article about the last blacksmith in Manchester, NH, where I grew up. Carl Netsch had retired and his shop was up for sale. The description of the products he forged and the idea of this being a "dying art" intrigued me. But I went no further until a year or so later.

I lived in Derry, NH, at the time and we would get flyers about the local continuing education program. In one was someone giving blacksmithing lessons. I never forgot that first article, and signed up for class right away. This was back in 2002.

The teacher, Ken DeRoche, was a former farrier, a fancy word for someone who shoes horses, and he was one of the best in the region. But the many years of wrestling half-ton beasts around to nail shoes to their hooves took its toll, and he had to retire. But he was an old-school shoe'er, who often made shoes from bar stock, so blacksmithing was a natural for him. He made some items for sale, but took up teaching as his main work.

Our first project was a "drive hook".