David Walker enters his backyard shop in Rathdrum to the harmonies of Canadian folk-rock band Great Big Sea’s “Rant and Roar” and “Ordinary Day” as he prepares to light his forge.

Walker gets some of his music recommendations from students who have passed through blacksmithing classes at his business, Fire Iron Forge in Athol.

“I’ll listen to anything though,” Walker said. “Except show tunes.”

Walker has been fascinated by blacksmithing since he was a little kid on a camping trip with his mom. Alone at night, he took a metal coat hanger used to cook hot dogs and placed it into the campfire. The coat hanger glowed in the dim light of the embers just like in some of the movies he used to watch. 

“I was very sneaky about it, and I have no idea why,” Walker said. “I smashed the coat hanger a little bit on the rocks, and it was like, ‘I am Conan the Barbarian! I am Highlander!’ That really sparked my interest in blacksmithing.”

After a brief foray into snowboarding and girls in his teens, Walker returned to blacksmithing in his early twenties. From the campfire to makeshift forges, getting an honest setup, learning from online forums and YouTube videos, then finally taking formal classes, he became inspired to teach. 

Fire Iron Forge originally started in Walker's shop in Rathdrum. In 2022, he moved his business to Athol, sharing a building with his friend Will Branson, owner of  Athol Ironworks, who teaches many of the blacksmithing classes.

“I'd have no problem calling him my brother,” Branson said. “He's an awesome dude, and we've spent a lot of time doing things like this together.”

Students can take formal, long-term lessons or single classes to learn to make anything from sharp weapons like knives, swords and axes to intricate flowers, bottle openers and hairpins. 

The products people take home will be of “heirloom quality,” meant to last for generations. Beyond making a quality piece, Walker and Branson feel it’s important for people to succeed at making their own things.

“As a teacher, the sense of accomplishment that they get by creating a functional tool, I always get a cool feeling,” Branson said. “It's going to be something that's going to be around that their kids will be able to give to their grandkids and say, ‘Hey, grandpa made this all the way back in 2026.’” 

To have something of their own, classes are open to all ages and accommodations for disabilities.

“I specifically like working with kids because it gives them some instant gratification for working really hard,” Walker said. “You’re going to get burned sometimes, you’re going to be sweaty and tired, have blisters. But when you’re done, there's an immediate result."

Walker and Branson know that most students come through only to take a single class and craft something they’ll take home with them. Whether they come once or a thousand times, they want students to leave with confidence, self-worth, and the belief that they can create something in the face of intimidating obstacles.

They also want them to connect with their ancestors who have preserved this craft for thousands of years.

“It’s about feeling the heat of the forge, feeling that fire, the kinetic response that you get from picking up a hammer and swinging it, hitting it hard,” Walker said. “And then the satisfaction of making something with your own hands that will outlive you is just really neat.”

Walker and Branson hope to help usher in a new generation of blacksmiths.

“If you have any inkling, any interest at all, try it,” Branson said. “You can come in for an hour or two hours and just tinker around in the shop and make something cool. That’s how most people get bit by the bug as we say.”

If that happens, it might just change students' lives the way it did for Walker and Branson.

“It's not about teaching them how to forge the steel,” Walker said. “It's how the steel kind of forges them.”

    A knife forged at Fire Iron Forge.
  

    David Walker lights the forge in his shop.
  

    David Walker forges a piece of metal fresh out of the fire.
  

    David Walker shows off a metal butterfly that had been previously forged.