Meet Dale,our blacksmith

Fifty years at the anvil, and a teaching shop built on one idea from Booker T. Washington: working with the hands and the mind.

See the class schedule

A student forging a large scroll in the VIB shop

1976First summer at the anvil

The story

It started with a living history program

For ten summers starting in 1976, Dale's family took part in the Booker T. Washington National Monument Living History Program, which recreated everyday life on a rural 1860s tobacco farm. His sister churned butter. Dale was drawn to the forge, and at nine years old his life in blacksmithing began. Washington's philosophy of working with the hands and the mind runs through everything he teaches today.

At Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, he set up a blacksmith shop while earning a bachelor's degree in business administration. He also studied at Penland and the John C. Campbell Folk School, then in Europe under Manfred Bredohl of Vulkanschmiede in Aachen, Germany, and Gabriele Curtolo in San Servolo, Venice. His lighting, railings and gates are in homes and businesses in the US and abroad.

Our forge

A teachingshop

Dale owns the Virginia Institute of Blacksmithing in Waynesboro and teaches the yearlong certificate class himself. World-class and internationally known guest instructors teach here too, and students consistently praise his teaching.

Master: Artisan, named by the Artisan Center of Virginia
3: ABANA National Curriculum levels he is accredited to teach and evaluate, one of few in the US
5.0: Stars on Google from 55 reviews

There is really something cathartic about taking such an unyielding material and bending it to your will, literally. It also feeds my creative needs.
Dale Morse

Guest instructors

Masterson the floor

Recent and upcoming guest instructors include Scott McGhee, Artem Marshak, Douglas Pryor, Ellen Durkan, Bethany Lee, Allan Kress and Fred Crist. Their classes are on the schedule.

Friends of the forge

Schools, guilds and shops we work with

Strike whilethe iron is hot

Pick a weekend, pick a project, and go home with something you forged yourself. Classes are small, so seats go fast.

See the class schedule (434) 960-9718