This summer, we’re thrilled to be hosting workshops with David Osmundsen (Arrowhead Forge School of Blacksmithing) and artist Tom Lucas, right here at the Arapaho Ranch Field Station.
Where to stay
If you’ll be taking part in a multi-day workshop, we offer dorm-like lodging in our beautiful 1918 mansion (reminiscent of an Italian villa) for $50/night, not including food.
The mansion has a kitchen with basic cooking utensils, cutlery, and dishes. Typically, workshop participants either cook their own meals, or will build communal meals for dinner and manage their own breakfast. The mansion also includes a bathhouse with private shower stalls and lots of hot water.
If you’d prefer to make other accommodations for your stay, we recommend looking for a room in Thermopolis, located 20 minutes from the Arapaho Ranch Field Station.
Space for summer workshops is limited, so we recommend enrolling soon!
To enroll in a workshop and/or reserve lodging in the mansion, please contact Lorre Hoffman at (307) 438-1452, or click here to send her an email.
About Our Workshop Teachers
David W. Osmundsen started blacksmithing in 1976 with an experienced Blacksmith Mentor. His blacksmithing career includes artist blacksmith, industrial tool smith, and gunsmith. He has taught blacksmithing in Colorado, Maine, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. His school for blacksmithing, Arrowhead Forge, is located in Buffalo, Wyoming.
David’s functional iron art and primitive recreations have been displayed in galleries nationwide. He has completed work for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Park Service, and the National Forest Service. David is certified by The Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association to teach the National Curriculum of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America.
- Watch a video of an Arrowhead Forge table-building project
- Watch a highlight video of forging with David
Tom Lucas always had a deep desire to create art about Western culture. Born and raised in Wyoming, his lifestyle as a cowboy, mountain man, hunter, trapper, and outdoorsman has formed the foundation of his art. His life experience lent to his ability to capture the cultures and lifestyles of all the peoples of the American West.
Tom’s knowledge and expertise in making ancestral tools was documented by PBS in “The Sheep-Eaters: Life in the Mountains.” In it, Tom is shown making big-horn sheep bows, a lost art form known by a handful of individuals in “Archers of the Yellowstone.”
Known as Tomahawk Tom in the Mountain Man arena, Tom has mastered replicating Indian artifacts (big-horn sheep bows, war-bonnets, beaded clothing and moccasins, horn spoons, knives, and arrowheads), many of which are subjects in his paintings and are on exhibit in museums throughout Wyoming. Tom grew up on the Wind River Reservation and learned to make traditional Native American tools from Shoshone and Arapaho Elders.
June 2023 workshops
June 16: Cow Horn Spoon Workshop with Tom Lucas
8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
cost: $250
Learn the ancient art of making spoons from horn!
The cost for this workshop includes access to all the tools and materials needed to make spoons from cleaned and prepped cow horns. (Fun fact: The first time we had Tom teach this quick-start to horn spoon making, he couldn’t understand why you would want to start with already polished horns; “just cut and form and shape and scrape,” he told us.)
As cow horns vary in color, just like cows (some cow horns are even translucent!), your unique spoon will have movement and characteristics that dictate its final form.
June 17: Buffalo Horn Spoon Workshop with Tom Lucas
8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Cost: $300
Take this rare opportunity to use buffalo horn and learn the complete process of making horn spoons. Buffalo horn has a beautiful and distinctive warm black color, unlike anything you have ever seen.
You’ll start with the whole horn, which is rather rough to begin with, so plan for lots of sanding and scraping to get the outer surface of the horn smooth and clear. Then, you’ll get to cut, form, and shape your own beautiful buffalo horn spoons. Each horn has its own special characteristics that will lead to ideas of bird handles or sheep head handles.
3-Day Basic Blacksmithing Workshop with Arrowhead Forge School of Blacksmithing
June 23 – 25
8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily
Cost: $900 (includes lunch each day)
No experience necessary! Each workshop is limited to three to four students, which provides a personal teaching atmosphere not found in most blacksmith schools.
Each student will share a gas forge with one other student and have their own anvil to work with.
All tools and materials are provided; in fact, you’ll actually make some of your first tools!
Over three days, you’ll:
- Learn basic blacksmithing techniques such as a mortise and tenon joint, a forge weld, an upset, a square and a round taper, a twist, and how to slit and drift a hole
- Build two basic blacksmithing tools
- Form and shape a decorative or functional object in iron
Projects throughout the workshop may include a hot-cut chisel, decorative hook, and BBQ tool.
Each step of the way, David will describe what will be done next, give a demonstration, then supervise as you do the process on your own.
Classes start at 8:30 each morning, break for a 30-minute lunch (provided), then continue until 4:30 or 5 p.m.
Please plan to wear closed-toe leather shoes, long cotton pants, T-shirts and long-sleeved cotton shirts. Baseball caps are a good idea; long hair must be tied back. Bring your preferred safety glass or goggles; if you wear prescription glasses, you may not need safety glasses.
July 2023
3-Day Ax-Making Workshop with Arrowhead Forge School of Blacksmithing
July 28 – 30
8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily
Cost: $900 (includes lunch each day)
No experience necessary! Each workshop is limited to three to four students, which provides a personal teaching atmosphere not found in most blacksmith schools.
Each student will share a gas forge with one other student and have their own anvil to work with.
All tools and materials are provided; in fact, you’ll actually make some of your first tools!
Over the three days, you’ll learn:
- Shop safety
- Tool selection
- Fire and hammer control
- Basic metallurgy and heat treating
- Shaping
- Cutting
You’ll get to build two basic blacksmithing tools, as well as form, shape, and sharpen an ax head and put it on a hickory handle.
Each step of the way, David will describe what will be done next, give a demonstration, then supervise as you do the process on your own.
Classes start at 8:30 each morning, break for a 30-minute lunch (provided), then continue until 4:30 or 5 p.m.
Please plan to wear closed-toe leather shoes, long cotton pants, T-shirts and long-sleeved cotton shirts. Baseball caps are a good idea; long hair must be tied back. Bring your preferred safety glass or goggles; if you wear prescription glasses, you may not need safety glasses.
What else is happening at the Arapaho ranch field station?
Take a look at our events calendar to find more opportunities to join us this summer!
*ARFS is partly supported by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
