Dec. 1 – The New Agrarian School in Bigfork, a nonprofit organization, teaches the age-old craft of blacksmithing to a new generation of hobbyists, professionals and instructors.
While blacksmiths historically produced common everyday objects from hammers to horseshoes, modern practitioners may focus on decorative and sculptural work. Many people are also drawn to the craft for the satisfaction of forging functional tools such as knives and axes, using heat and hammers.
Jeffrey Funk, the founder of the New Agricultural School, discovered his passion for blacksmithing at the age of 18 when he bought his first anvil and built a decades-long career in the trade. In 2019 he opened the school to preserve and pass on the craft.
“Any time you need a tool, you can just make it, which is pretty satisfying,” Funk said, including making a scythe when he decided to start growing and harvesting his own wheat. “It’s pretty powerful to be able to make the basic things that you need for your livelihood.”
Funk’s career included architectural and commissioned work such as gates, railings, lighting fixtures and sculptures, including one installed in Tennessee.
“Forging as a necessary economic craft effectively disappeared in the early twentieth century. Blacksmithing existed in small towns until the mid-20th century, but by the 1950s it was essentially dead or in hibernation,” he says.
Between the East Coast craft schools and organizations like the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America, there has been a resurgence of interest.
“Fifty years later, it’s actually quite an important profession. It’s mainly about people who make architectural metalwork, make tools and make knives. Those are the most important ones,” he said.
The New Agrarian School, modeled after craft schools on the East Coast, aims to fill a need for formal blacksmithing education in the West, according to Funk. The school’s approach emphasizes traditional techniques and a deep understanding of materials.
“Like [enrollment in] the schools in the East are an indication – it fills a need,” he said.
On a cool fall day in November, Funk toured the New Agrarian School, which offers one- to two-week workshops in the summer. Funk spends the fall and winter months working on personal projects and preparing for summer workshops.
A small gravel parking lot provides access to the school and blacksmith shop, which was featured on an episode of the History Channel reality show “Forged in Fire.”
Metalwork can be found throughout the building and is largely reused from something else, namely bridges.
“The store was built from a bridge down the street, Kearney Rapids Bridge, which was demolished in the 1990s,” he said, pointing to columns and beams.
A student-made sculpture adorns the garden in front of a small brick library with a veranda supported by metal columns. The statue was made with the repurposed parts of the “old steel bridge,” which is actually wrought iron, Funk said, a basic product for blacksmithing.
“Wrought iron is not a modern material. It has to do with steel. It has to do with the way it was made,” he explained. “I use that material for everything, and I save the bridges because it’s just a very beautiful material.”
“Some of these materials are just not available. So I guess I’m looking for another bridge,” he said, looking at the Bigfork bridge that was in need of replacement on Bridge Street.
He said wrought iron is very soft, making it easy to forge and weld. Welding in a forge is a different process than what is done in a fabrication shop.
“By heating your pieces to the right temperature and basically just hammering them together,” Funk explained, versus, for example, an arc weld, which uses an electric current to heat the metal.
Inside, the forge is a far cry from the darkened, sooty images or historical recreations. He said this is due to the use of a propane forge. As a school, he said it was important to have an environment that was clean and orderly so that students could move around safely.
“I stopped using coal in the ’80s. That was a little romantic for a while, but I wanted to be able to breathe,” Funk said.
All the tools the students use in the shop exemplify self-sufficiency as they are handcrafted. Funk also built huge air-powered hammers for students to use.
“There’s quite a bit of innovation in this shop in terms of tool making. We make our own sledgehammers, we make everything,” he said.
When you turn on one of the powerful hammers, the hiss of whooshing air can be heard as the hammer moves up and down rapidly.
“For the bigger stuff you need more power,” he said, or a sledgehammer-wielding store clerk at the ready. “And they’re all different sizes. This is a 500 pound, that’s a 400 pound and this is a 200 pound [hammer].”
Surrounding the store are demonstration pieces and panels, which he calls storyboards, that show the different stages or stages of a particular process or technique. One panel shows what happens with different heat treatments.
He picks up a steel rod and does a quick demonstration for photos. Placing the rod in the neon red-orange glow of the forge heats it just enough to hammer the end into a point. After a few minutes he decides it needs to be heated up longer because he wants to use one of the power hammers. Funk deftly rotates the rod that sits beneath the hammer, to create a clearer point.
“This year there will be a basic class, where they will probably be making hooks and pokers and small items like that. The blacksmith tool class, they will be making hammers, tongs and anvil tools,” he said.
FOR STUDENT Tug Leberman, a retired contractor and carpenter, began his interest in learning blacksmithing with a need for antique square-head nails for a chuckwagon woodworking project.
“Being a frugal guy, I thought, how hard can it be to make myself?” said Leberman, who has been woodworking since he was 14 and uses traditional hand tools.
After doing some research, he realized that YouTube videos weren’t enough and contacted several blacksmiths.
“The difference with metalworking is there’s a lot more math involved,” he said.
Eventually he found/made contact with Funk, who at that time had not yet opened the New Agricultural School. Leberman said Funk was generous enough to give him a crash course in blacksmithing. Once the school opened, Leberman was ready to take a deeper dive, starting with the basics, and he was hooked. Since then he has attended several workshops at school, the last of which was an ax building workshop.
“It doesn’t sound complicated, but when you see it done — when you get into it — it’s probably 25 to 30 steps,” Leberman said.
In kind, Leberman shared his woodworking expertise and tools with Funk.
“I’m fascinated by what you can make with the most primitive tools,” Leberman said.
With the school officially notified of its nonprofit status this year, Funk is beginning fundraising efforts to maintain the school. He currently pays costs that are not covered by tuition fees. Funk’s nonprofit status also allows it to seek grants.
He said if there is enough interest, the next step could be to expand into other areas, such as woodwork, ceramics or fabrics, mirroring that of the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.
“I think craft schools are much better when there is more than one craft going on because there is cross-pollination between the different crafts,” he said.
Registration for the 2025 summer workshops is open. June workshops include Blacksmithing Fundamentals with Tony Stewart and Hammers and Tongs with Funk and Knives for the Outdoors with Jordan LaMothe.
In July, Funk will be teaching Blacksmithing from the Natural World and Tools for the Farm and Garden. From July 28 to August 1, Mark Aspery will teach blacksmithing for advanced beginners to intermediate level students. Workshops in August also include Utensil Forging: Design and Refine with Anna Koplik; American Axes with funk and zen and the art of hammer swinging with Peter Braspenninx.
Tuition for two-week workshops is $1,950 and $975 for one-week workshops. There are various accommodation options available on site that students can book separately.
Register for a workshop; donate; or for more information, visit www.newagrarianschool.org.
Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.
Jeffrey Funk forges a piece of steel with a Chambersburg hammer in his workshop at the New Agrarian School in Bigfork on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Jeffrey Funk describes a variety of blacksmith hammers and tools in his workshop at the New Agrarian School in Bigfork on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Jeffrey Funk displays a piece of steel repurposed from a car leaf spring into an ax head forged from iron salvaged from the Old Steel Bridge in Evergreen. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Jeffrey Funk displays an ax in his workshop that was forged from iron salvaged from the Old Steel Bridge that used to span the Flathead River in Evergreen. The grain is created by etching the ax head in acid, which dissolves the slag in the wrought iron of the bridge.
Jeffrey Funk holds a test bar in his office, forged from a wrought iron “bloom,” a mass of iron produced by smelting iron ore on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Jeffrey Funk walks to the library building on his property, part of the New Agrarian School in Bigfork, on Tuesday, November 12. The sculpture in the front garden is forged from wrought iron reused from the Old Steel Bridge by students in one of his workshops. . (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Support columns made of wrought iron from the Old Steel Bridge outside a residential building for instructors at Jeffrey Funk’s New Agrarian School in Bigfork on Tuesday, Nov. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
In his office, Jeffrey Funk displays two test pieces of wrought iron that have been deeply etched in acid to remove slag and reveal grain. The beam on the left is wrought iron from the Old Steel Bridge, which used to span the Flathead River in Evergreen. The rod on the right is iron smelted from ore in his workshop. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Jeffrey Funk holds a Japanese-style chisel, called a slick, forged from wrought iron in his workshop in Bigfork on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
A page with Jeffrey Funk’s handwritten instructions on forging a new ax in his workshop on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
An ax labeled New Agrarian Tools in Jeffrey Funk’s workshop in Bigfork on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Woodworking tools forged in a recent Carpenter’s Tools workshop at the New Agrarian School in Bigfork on Tuesday, November 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Students taking an iron smelting class at the New Agrarian School in Bigfork in June pose for a class photo near a blooming furnace. The class made iron from a variety of ores from Montana and Utah. (Photo provided by Jefferey Funk)
Students in the American Axes class held this summer at the New Agrarian School in Bigfork present items created during the weeklong workshop. (Photo provided by Jeffrey Funk)
