Blacksmith Shop
The California Blacksmith Association (CBA) is a group of nearly 1,000 amateur and professional blacksmiths and metal work fans. Members interests include traditional and modern forging, sculpture, blademaking, tooling, farrier work, reproduction and restoration blacksmithing, custom architectural ironwork, home implements, rendezvous/reenactments/Renaissance Fairs, repoussé, flintlock gunsmithing, wheelwrighting, and just about any other aspect of iron and steel forging you can think of. The CBA produces several annual get-togethers, a bi-monthly journal, and classes and workshops throughout the state to fulfill its primary mission of sharing and developing the craft of hand forging.
The Vista Forge of the California Blacksmith Association offers classes in blacksmithing at several skill levels, providing the opportunity to try an ancient craft, make some useful and decorative pieces, and learn classic techniques of both tool making and architectural ironwork. We meet on the grounds of the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, where we are surrounded by steam traction engines, threshers, huge old Caterpillars and other marvels of the mid-19th to 20th century technologies. Our barn up on the hill (Building G) has 17 forging stations, and shares space with a wheelwright shop and a line shaft powered machine shop. During twice-annual fairs, the single-cylinder kerosene engine in the Blacksmith barn is fired up allowing the blacksmiths to use the 200 pound Bradley Helve power hammer.
