The Barefoot Forge — Local services in Hampton Township

TL;DR – This is one of the best experiences you will ever do. It was incredibly fun and you should absolutely do it if you’re getting married. You won’t regret it.

Full Review: During the pandemic, my fiancé and I fell down the Youtube and internet rabbit hole, and started to get really intrigued by blacksmithing. That’s when we stumbled upon Craig and The Barefoot Forge. We saw a video of him helping someone make their wedding band, and knew instantly we had to do it.

Naturally, I had many questions about the whole process, and Craig was more than happy to oblige and patiently answer my interrogation. He was very quick to respond and always gave me such detailed answers to the questions I had about his products. The guy knows his stuff. So I booked a weekend at the Barefoot Forge for myself and my fiancé.

We’re based in DC, so we drove up for the weekend. Side note - Craig was even helpful to us in planning for our trip, giving some great suggestions on places to stay and things to look out for in town.

From the moment we arrived at the forge, Craig was nothing but welcoming and friendly. He loves a chat, and is very easy to talk to and get along with. Because we had caught the blacksmithing bug, we were insistent on doing the whole process start to finish. Which included making the Damascus steel billet. That’s a fiddly and time consuming process which adds another day to the trip, but it was worth it for us to see how the sausage gets made. However if you’re not die hard into blacksmithing you can probably skip this step, Craig will have the billet made for you and you can get to the more fun part of the operation.

What’s not to love about fire, angle grinders, and hitting super hot metal until it forms into something cool. We learned so much. Craig is truly an expert at what he does. He was so educational about everything, talking us through the entire process. My fiancé went from being intimidated by the angle grinder, to being an absolute baller with it – making them sparks fly. All thanks to Craig’s tutelage.

If that’s not enough, Craig was just the most hospitable person ever. Making sure we were well fed with snacks and plied with drinks. He even was more than willing to join in on belting out a few show tunes. (And if you want to see Craig truly light up, just mention Emmy Rossum in Phantom of the Opera.)

I can’t get past how beautiful the rings and finished products are. It’s incredibly satisfying – seeing something turn from a lump of metal, into a beautiful piece of art. Each one is so unique to you, and there will never be another one like it. The fact we were able to make my ring together also makes it all the more special. Sure I could have just gone out to buy a ring, but now I have this fond experience which my fiancé and I got to do together, which I’ll always be able to remember when I see my ring. Also for reference – I got the Hybrid Damascus ring, lined with Palladium white gold. And I absolutely love it. (Haven’t stopped looking at it since we got back from the weekend).

I couldn’t recommend this more highly. Whether you consider yourself a handy person or not, you will be able to do this. It was such an incredible experience. Whether you want to do it as part of a bachelor party, alone, or with your fiancé, the whole experience will be a blast. I guarantee it. It’s definitely...

Id like to start this review by stating that I could not be happier with the experience I was had at the Barefoot Forge with Craig. I had an absolute blast of a day from the start until the very end, and I recommend anyone who is on the fence to sign up for his "make your own ring" experience. Today had fire, power tools, food, music, loud noises, and could not have been cooler for someone who loves one/all of those things. Craig is seriously the nicest guy, and while I could type paragraphs about how amazing he was to converse and hang out with, I think it is even more important to stress how skilled he is when it comes to forging a Damascus wedding ring, as well as blacksmithing in general. While I have not forged many a Damascus wedding ring in my life, I can faithfully say that his process and knowledge is unparalleled when it comes to this experience. The fact that Craig can take someone who has absolutely 0 experience with power tools, blacksmithing, and ring making, and help them create such a breathtaking end product is something so special and unique to the Barefoot Forge and it is not an experience that I believe anyone can get anywhere else. Craig was seriously an awesome dude, he had snacks/beverages ready for me all day, go me an iconic Pittsburgh lunch, and let me stay after the ring was complete to forge some roses (yea, flowers made out of metal!!) where he taught me how to weld as well. He went above and beyond the entire day and he truly let me do just about everything when it came to my ring. This ring is absolutely awesome and it would have been awesome if he shipped it to me, but the fact that I got to actually make this with my own bare hands, get dirty, hit it with hammers and literally catch myself on fire during the process (in a fun way, not a trip to the hospital way) makes it 1000x more special. I am so excited to get to hang out with him at his "intro to blacksmithing" course and seriously urge everyone to make this your wedding ring destination as well as a location to take classes and learn about the hobby. Don't just go to the jewelry store and pay for an overpriced, mass produced wedding ring when you can actually go and spend quality time with a good hard working American and actually get your hands dirty and make something not only one of a kind, but absolutely breathtaking.

Picture is of my ring (gold) and Craigs silver ring he made along side me to show...

As unconventional as it sounds, I wanted to give my wonderful fiancé an engagement ring after he proposed to me with one this past spring. So... in typical fashion, I decided it would be cool to forge our own ring for him! We are local to the area, and I had just discovered Barefoot Forge through some brochures I had seen. My fiancé and I have done a blacksmithing class at Protohaven before, but neither of us have any experience outside of that. Big fans of Forged in Fire, but everybody probably says that... Needless to say, my husband-to-be was very excited when I surprised him with this experience.

Craig was super accommodating to our schedule, and we did our ring in two consecutive weekday nights. We forged the first night, taking a break for some delicious 'za. Craig even showed us the milling aspect of creating the center hole for the ring, and scaling the piece using a metal lathe. The second session, we focused on the jewelry-making aspect of it, adding our silver lining to the inside of the ring.

The shop is so freaking cool - as a maker and artist myself, I am always interested in other people's shops. Craig has a great setup, and we felt immediately at-ease and welcomed into his space. He is very safety-conscious, but also knows how to have a good time. We walked away with not only a stunning ring, but having had an absolute blast with one of the best instructors out there. Thank...