Toby Druce is making a mid-life career change to become a blacksmith. He is from the Toronto area in Ontario Canada and has been a social worker with the City of Toronto for the past 29 years. He has decided to change career paths and learn to become a blacksmith by attending the Fleming College Blacksmith Program over the next 15 weeks. Toby and l are doing a 4-part podcast series and this is the 2nd interview, Toby is now 5 weeks into his program.
What We Talked About
- With five weeks into his blacksmith program, he has obtained an A+ in Drawing and forged some tools; a hot chisel, hardy hot cut, punch, drift, and center punch.
- He just successfully completed his first forge weld a few days ago for a pair of tongs.
- There are 15 students in the class with an age range from 17 to 57 years old.
- Each student has to come up with a design of a final project and forge it by the end of the program, Toby’s is going to be a table and table top and it will be his rendition of a compass rose.
- Along with the final project, each student will also have to show 8 different completed projects. Toby plans to make a set of repousse tools, a demo of repousse, kitchen utensils, a set of garden tools, and more chisels.
- Toby is already looking to reach out to a few Toronto blacksmith businesses for an apprenticeship.
Guest Links
- Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses
A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor - Fleming College
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