As the embers burn in the forge and the iron heats to a glowing orange, it’s time to get to work. Learning traditional skills in this hands-on experience, immerse yourself in the culture and art of the traditional blacksmith by visiting the Royal Oak Forge in Betws-y-Coed.
Have you ever wanted to create your own knife? How about wedding bands, an axe, an ornament or maybe even a bottle opener? These are some of the options that are offered when attending an experience at the Royal Oak Forge in Betws-y-Coed. Whether it’s a taster session, a full day or multiple days, you’ll get hands on and learn the craft of traditional blacksmithing from an expert, using techniques that date back centuries.
Disclosure: This experience was hosted by Royal Oak Forge, but all views and opinions are my own. Making bookings through links on this page will earn me a small commission and assist in the upkeep of this website at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.
A TRADITIONAL BLACKSMITH IN NORTH WALES
In the heart of the mountain village of Betws-y-Coed, the gateway to Eryri (Snowdonia), the ROYAL OAK FORGE is tucked away near the Afon Llugwy. This popular honeypot village in the perfect base for exploring the national park, but for those wet weather days, an indoor experience can be a welcome break from Wales changeable weather. A working traditional blacksmith forge, Royal Oak Forge was set up by Aaron Houghton in 2020, within a former motor museum on family property. An expert traditional blacksmith, Aaron has twelve spent years honing his craft, learning about the skills and creativity of traditional blacksmithing, which becomes evident in his enthusiasm while teaching others.
With the skills of the traditional blacksmith is dying out thanks to modern developments in ironmongery, there’s a heavy importance on keeping this traditional craft, which is steeped in history and culture, alive and well. The Royal Oak Forge is a full time working traditional blacksmith forge, and when not providing these unique experience days, work on commissions for a variety of customers, including local market stalls providing bottle openers, cheese knives, fire tools and jewellery, amongst other things.
THE ROYAL OAK FORGE EXPERIENCE
Our experience at the Royal Oak Forge was a three hour taster session where we had the opportunity to learn all the basic skills and techniques used by a traditional blacksmith. These could then be used in a number of different applications. Whilst the experience can be individual, within a small or larger group, the classes are never mixed with other bookings. This provides an individual and unique experience, and one to one interaction with the blacksmith. Hosted by Aaron and Kit at the forge, we arrived keen to start the day and get stuck in. Donning our Royal Oak Forge safety aprons we were ready to start work.
Having run through the important safety precautions and discussed plans for the class, the session would involve forging a scroll knife. Pete, who had already done an individual forging class previously (and now a pro), tried his hand at some different skills creating a number of keyrings using various techniques. For me, the procedures involved in creating a scroll knife utilised a number of different blacksmithing techniques, making it the perfect class to get an all round experience. The structure of the class involved the process being broken down into sections, with Aaron explaining and working through each step in a fun and engaging way, and also making it look way easier than it actually was.
CREATING A SCROLL KNIFE USING TRADITIONAL BLACKSMITH TECHNIQUES
Feeling a little overwhelmed and not expecting to be able to replicate these skills, I was told to trust the process. The key points I immediately took from the art of the traditional blacksmith were a) to have patience and to persevere with a particular step, and b) hit things a lot harder than you initially feel that you need to. This was hard, but rewarding work.
There were several steps to creating the scroll knife, which involved a number of different techniques. Starting off with a length of iron, which was heated in the forge, the first step was to create the handle using methods to extend the metal and shape into a square, before creating the scroll point at the end. This would then be twisted and curled into shape, before moving onto creating the decorative twist in the handle, and finally folding over to create the handle shape. Learning that there is an optimum point where the metal can be forged, and then a relatively short period where it can be worked on before cooling, the process involved a lot of patience and plenty of assistance when things went a little out of shape.
Handle done, it was on to creating the blade. Whilst being shown the techniques involved by Aaron, and being assisted by Kit along the way so I could take some photography breaks, we also got learn more about the the purpose and use of the traditional blacksmith tools. I of course knew what an anvil was prior to my visit, but had never really considered how each part of the anvil is used in specific processes. Working on the anvil and using it to create and shape the knife was a great way to learn about this traditional craft.
Working on the blade of the scroll knife involved shaping the blade, before manually creating the sharp point of the blade. This would then be finished on a belt grinder, as my hammering skills were not really up to creating a workable sharp blade.
I can honestly say that when I first started, I had reservations that my skill set would not really get me very far in this process, but I did trust the process. The end result of the scroll knife, even if I did have some assistance along the way, was a beautiful piece of work. The hours flew by during this session, it was interesting and enjoyable. Learning from Aaron was easy – his enthusiastic, passionate and laid back approach made the experience so much fun, and it was so great to be able leave having hand crafted something unique to take away. For a traditional blacksmith experience in North Wales, I would definitely recommend booking a visit to the Royal Oak Forge in Betws-y-Coed.
BOOK YOUR VISIT TO ROYAL OAK FORGE IN BETWS-Y-COED
BOOKING YOUR EXPERIENCE | Ready to book your experience at Royal Oak Forge in Betws-y-Coed? Royal Oak Forge are available on both Instagram and Facebook, where enquiries can be made via direct message. There are a range of experiences available from three and five hour taster sessions, full days and multiple days. Prices per person start from £80.00 for the three hour forging experience, and vary depending on length of course and number of people in the group. All bookings are individual or private group only – there will not be mixed classes with other groups, meaning the experience is bespoke and tailored to your needs and requirements.
GETTING TO ROYAL OAK FORGE | Located in the centre of Betws-y-Coed near the Tourist Information Centre, it couldn’t be easier to reach Royal Oak Forge. Accessed via a private driveway from the A5 opposite the Royal Oak Hotel, there is free parking available outside. The address is Royal Oak Farm Cottage, Betws-y-Coed, LL24 0AH. Betws-y-Coed is accessible by road, rail or bus with good public transport links.
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SEARCH THE TRAVELINE CYMRU WEBSITE FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT TIMETABLES IN THE AREA
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