Capta Majora — seek greater things
Martin Geddes wrote TAFE Queensland’s blacksmithing course book and is now writing Australia’s national standards. Learn the trade from the resources — or at the anvil beside him.
Where to start
Rebuilt from Martin’s own teaching material — the same content used to train apprentices, reformatted to learn from at home.
Safety checklist and first-tools guide. The stuff that keeps beginners in one piece before they touch hot steel.
Hand tools, heat control and the core techniques the way they’re taught at the forge.
The full first-year grounding: tools, forming, calculations, heat and safety.
Handbook, guide, trade assessment and tooling instructions — plus a class discount.
Start from nothing
Martin’s way is build-your-own-everything. Apprentices forge their own tongs and fire tools; Martin himself has built six portable forges and his own anvil stands from scratch. The trade doesn’t start with a shopping list — it starts at the fire.
Fifty years of skill, put where the next generation can reach it — online, and at the anvil in Ipswich.
Start with the handbook →
The last blacksmith teacher
When TAFE Queensland closed its blacksmithing program in 2023, Martin was the last teacher standing. He built a working shop at the Cooneana Heritage Centre and kept teaching — and he’s spent the years since rewriting the national standards so the trade outlasts all of us.
Read Martin’s full story →
In person · Ipswich, QLD
The premium end of the trade: a full day at the anvil under Martin’s eye, at the Cooneana shop he built himself.
See the classes →
Hand-forged in the shop
Hot punches, slitters and hammer & press tooling — forged to order and shipped with the operating instructions and warranty. Custom commissions welcome.
See the tooling →Not ready to buy?
Get the Blacksmith’s Starter Kit — a safety checklist and first-tools guide, drawn straight from the handbook.
Email sign-up goes live at launch. No spam — just the trade.