I took a trip up to Portland Maine to visit with Sam Smith who is the guildmaster of the Maine Blacksmith Guild. You can check them out on facebook right here.

And if you are in the Portland area and interested in learning blacksmithing they do have classes and an apprenticeship program. Learn more by visiting their facebook page.

Sam and I discussed a lot of things blacksmith related including the fact that his guild takes two trips a year to Europe for blacksmithing. He also was kind enough to do a tutorial for us. He shows us how to make an over the top bottle opener.

Here on this page I give you an overview of the process and if you want to actually watch it being done I have a youtube video for that right here: How to Forge a Bottle Opener video tutorial.

Here is a look at the completed bottle opener.

The important part is that curl on the left end. that is what lifts the bottle cap off the bottle. On the right is a nice scroll work pattern just for fun and to give it a good feel. Let's take a closer look at that scroll work on the right:

This picture shows how the bottle opener works.

Here are some of the techniques Sam shows us while making this bottle opener:

• Hot Cutting
• Upsetting
• Two sided taper
• Curling
• Rounded taper
• Twisting

Let's Get Started:

Sam starts with a long piece of mild steel that is 3/8 inch square. We want a piece that is about twelve inches long so we need to cut 12 inches off that piece. We do that with a technique called hot cutting. Heat up the steel where you want it to be cut to almost yellow hot. Then use a hardy tool called a hot cut off tool to cut the piece.

You don't cut all the way through with the hammer and cut off tool. You cut it most of the way through. He then quenched the end in water so he could grab a hold of it.

He then grasped that cooled end and gently worked it until it easily split apart.

Just like this. Now we have our piece of steel that we will forge into a bottle opener.

Okay, Let's continue

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