Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association
The NRBA is a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to the preservation of the craft of blacksmithing and to educational endeavors related to the craft.
The NRBA supports and encourages the continued professional development of working smiths, the budding skills of those new to the pursuit and the interest and education of the general public in this ancient and fascinating craft. We invite you to join us as a member and to support the preservation of blacksmithing into the 21st century.
One of the most effective ways our members use to share the craft of ironworking and to hone their skills as teacher/demonstrators is to hold monthly "Hammer-Ins", which are free of charge, or workshops (which have a modest tuition fee to cover instruction and materials). Some of the forging skills a beginner might pick up by attending a hammer-in or basic level workshop are: drawing out, fullering, splitting, punching, upsetting, and learning not to pick up your work by the hot end. Participants have also made basic tools of the blacksmithing trade such as tongs, punches, chisels, hammers, pokers and small, propane-fueled forges.
The NRBA, as an educational group, encourages all blacksmithing activities ranging from carving an animal head, to building gates (plain or fancy), to tool and forge making and spreading information about our trade---hobby---avocation to others at various public events.
We draw members primarily from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas as well as several from Washington, Oregon and western Canada. Join the NRBA.
Many NRBA members are professional smiths who make a living doing the work they love and placing beautiful ironwork in the public eye. They are also extremely generous in sharing their knowledge and expertise with both NRBA members and the public by holding hammer-ins, conducting workshop courses at their home forges and acting as demonstrators at local, regional and national conferences, public events and school programs.
The Northwest Rockies Blacksmith Association is a group of dedicated blacksmiths of all skill levels that share a hunger to learn as much as possible from each other about forging red-hot iron with fire, hammer and anvil. Of inclination as well as necessity, blacksmiths tend to be quite open about the secrets of their craft---such as they have been able to rediscover. Groups such as ours foster the art of blacksmithing primarily by holding conferences at a member’s shop, and inviting a skilled craftsman to demonstrate his specialty.
The NRBA holds annual Spring and Fall Conferences which include both demonstrations and hands-on workshop time, monthly "Hammer-Ins" and other public programs held by its members. Forthcoming Conference Schedule Browse photographs of our Past Conferences
We maintain a blacksmithing reference library for the use of or members, free but for the postage
We publish the NRBA Blacksmiths News, a newsletter covering our events and other items of interest to members. See two pages inadvertently left out of the Spring 2022 Blacksmith News
We offer The Doug Adelmann Scholarship Fund to help members attend specialized blacksmithing workshops. Other Grants are available.
The NRBA is an affiliate of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America: www.abana.org
Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association. Kermit Indreland, president. 406 964-8579 lazykw@yahoo.com
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