The strong urge of “I really want to forge” grew out of something rather unexpected: a TV series. Of course, like most boys, I had already “forged” as a child—heating nails on the gas stove and hammering them into arrowheads. But even then, I longed for something more…
The Beginnings
A deep interest in archaeology and a lifelong fascination with weapons (both loves of more than 35 years) often drew me close to blacksmithing, but life’s unpredictable winds always steered me away at the last moment. So the desire stayed inside me, unfulfilled, while I worked a job that wasn’t truly meaningful and tried various hobbies.
Then, in 2014, came that TV series. It featured a Scottish basket-hilted broadsword—an unusual and complex sword with an ornate guard. I told Monika: I’m going to make one of those. She sighed, because she knew once I set my mind to something, it’s hard to talk me out of it. This new drive luckily coincided with a change in my work schedule that gave me more time at home.
The Path Toward Decorative Blacksmithing
And so it began… I gathered tools, bought an anvil from a distant relative who used it as a barn door weight, picked up a makeshift forge at a scrap yard (cutting half the table off to make it cheaper), and converted our tiny 8 m² stable into a “forge.”
YouTube tutorials, old textbooks, and constant trial and error guided me. As a fellow smith once said, “I had no master—my mistakes and the blisters on my palms were my teachers.”
Later I discovered the Hungarian Blacksmith Guild, where Master Zoltán Takáts kindly and tactfully pointed out the issues in my work and invited me to join guild events. At last, I met real blacksmiths, worked alongside them, and learned from them. I seized the opportunity, and I will always be grateful to Zoltán. My first small commissions soon followed, and I’ll never forget the joy of earning money for my family with my craft—finally creating something meaningful. Beyond the age of forty, I had set myself new goals.
My Craft: Decorative Blacksmithing
In 2016, after presenting three of my works and having already spent nearly two years forging alongside guild members, I was accepted into the Guild. Within its community, many offered help, friendships were formed, and I gained valuable knowledge. In 2019 I enrolled in a decorative blacksmithing program at the Teleki Blanka Vocational School in Nyíregyháza, which I completed in the summer of 2020, earning my official blacksmith’s certification.
Today, I can proudly say: my craft is decorative blacksmithing—simple as that.
