Reference
Guilds, resources, and a notice about this address
This address held a links page for twenty years. It still holds one, rebuilt, and it opens with the notice it owes its readers.
Start with the notice, because it is the reason this page reads differently from the one that used to be here.
What this site is not
Until the summer of 2025 this domain was the website of the Capital District Blacksmiths’ Association, the group of smiths around Albany and Troy, New York. That association is real and it is still listed, on 6 September 2026, in the ABANA affiliate directory. The Forge Ledger is not that association, has no connection to it, no agreement with it, and cannot pass a message to it. If you arrived here looking for the group, the directory is where to look for it, not this page. Everything else on this site is independent editorial work, as the about page explains.
The national body, and why affiliates matter more
In North America the umbrella organisation is ABANA, the Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America. For a beginner the useful part of ABANA is not the national body but its affiliate structure: dozens of regional groups, most of which meet monthly, demonstrate in public and let visitors turn up. A regional group is where you will actually get your hands on a hammer, and the directory is the fastest way to find the one nearest you. New York State also has its own designer blacksmiths organisation, and in Britain the equivalent body is the British Artist Blacksmiths Association.
Directories worth keeping
Beyond the associations, the useful links are the ones that survive. A long standing hand maintained index of guilds and associations worldwide is kept at FeBlacksmith, and it lists far more small groups than any official directory does. For books rather than groups, an open catalogue such as Open Library will confirm an edition, a publisher and a year before you buy a second hand copy at an optimistic price; our own shortlist is on the reading list.
Museums and collections
For the ironwork rather than the craft, the relevant institutions are local. The Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway interprets the industrial history of the Troy area, including the Burden works. Further afield, the Swedish History Museum holds the object that every smith eventually wants to see, described on the Mastermyr page. What is still standing within a short drive of Troy is set out in the local ironwork guide.
What is not on this page
No supplier list, and no ranking of anything. We do not test tools, we take no advertising and we accept no paid placement, which is set out in the editorial policy. A links page that quietly sells its positions is worse than no links page, and there were enough of those in 2005 to last a lifetime.