I want them to say, this guy, he was doing really good work.

- Blacksmithing is a skill that was once a part of our everyday life.

But in modern times it can be intimidating and quite costly to learn the science of shaping steel.

But if you wanna see if you have what it takes to be a master bladesmith, a perfect place to start would be the Bavarian Blacksmith Experience in Frankenmuth.

(dramatic music) Things are heating up inside the walls of the Bavarian Blacksmith Experience in Frankenmuth.

- There's so much that you're are gonna learn in the forge about yourself.

First off, do you have any sort of endurance and mental grit or grit at all?

It takes something to get through.

Now you don't have to be super strong to do this.

You just have to be willing to go all the way.

If you stick at it and you go through it and you do this, you will gain self-confidence.

You will gain a self-respect.

- [Matthew] Now, for you smithing fans out there, you may already recognize Josh from his numerous appearances on shows like "Forged in Fire."

He's enjoyed sharing his passion with folks across the world.

And he found himself settling down in the town of Frankenmuth with a drive to share his passion and make it more accessible than ever before.

- Everywhere I went, people wanted to ask, "How do I get started?

How do I get into this?

What do you have to do?"

And so I eventually just started handing people hammers and said, well, "Let's just work together now."

And over that time of doing that, I developed finding the right steel and weaving in the very basic beginner forging operations any smith has to use to make their pieces.

- [Matthew] The shop was buzzing with excitement as students from the Clio area work hand-in-hand with skilled smiths hammering, twisting, and quenching steel to make their own one-of-a-kind creations.

The students here learn a bit about history, a bit about science and a lot about themselves.

- We've tailored our experiences.

Generally we start at six years old and then as long as you're not dead, we say you can do it.

You know, I've even had a couple blind people come in and forge with us.

So as long as you can listen and follow directions, we're gonna work with you.

What we love about having the kids in, and the reason you're seeing so many in here today is the Cleo School District actually works with us and we've created a joint program where students from that district can come and they can forge and they can learn about this dying trade.

And it is a really fulfilling thing for us to have that relationship and be able to do that because that's why this exists.

I want this craft to exist.

I don't want it to die.

I don't want it to fade away.

And over the last a hundred years, it has really tapered off a lot in general knowledge.

The reason the students are really loving this is because it's different.

It's hands-on.

There's a danger element to it.

You know, there's a little risk with the fire.

There's something beyond the words of explaining it, the magic that happens when you're in the forge.

And these kids are getting to experience that.

- [Matthew] Now, there was no way Josh was letting me leave the shop before he could get a hammer in my hands.

I focused my attention on that red hot rail spike as Josh walked me through the process.

- So when we make the rail spike knife today, first off is we're just going to hit it a lot and we're gonna really just flatten it out.

- [Matthew] Good to go?

- [Josh] Yep.

Go for it.

Gonna go harder.

(hammering thudding) Little harder.

And that will give us something to start building from, to start changing, to morph into shape.

Go a little bit faster.

I don't quite want to dance to that.

There we go.

No, that's perfect.

You're right on.

It's cold?

- Yep.

- Yep, yep.

So you can see what you've done.

- Got a little ways to go.

- Look it from the side.

You can see how much you've spread the top part of that.

From there, what we're going to do is we'll define the tip on it.

We like to pull the heel out of the blade of that.

That acts as a little bit of a guard, and it allows you to get a full cutting edge from what is kind of the butt of the blade all the way up to the tip.

So we're gonna work on trying to make a cool, nice tapers and get something that is forged to look like a knife.

We will then twist the handle around, which is a lot of fun.

It's like some brute strength, superman type stuff.

I just, I always love that part.

And then we'll quench it to get it hardened and then we'll take it to the grind shed and grind it, sharpen it, and make it nice and finished for you.

We want people who leave here to feel confident, to feel accomplished, and to feel like they have something that they can do.

They have a new skill and they have a value beyond what maybe social media makes them feel or the other things in their lives.

It's too easy to just feel depressed and bad about stuff now.

And we like to provide that goodness in people's lives.

- And just like that,