It was only 2 degrees outside, but as I gripped the tongs, trying to hammer the glowing piece of steel clamped in its jaws, my leather glove began to smoke. I dropped the tongs with a yelp, and the Viking-style belt buckle I was making fell into the snow. Steam rose as the metal hissed, sank and began to change color, from bright cherry to dull red to black. I would have to put it back in the forge to reheat it before trying again to shape the buckle's serpentine curves. For the previous Christmas, I'd gifted my partner, Jack, a class for the two of us at Blackthorne Forge in Marshfield. There, longtime smith Steve Bronstein shapes steel into serving spoons, cheese knives, animal sculptures, delicate vases and menorahs. When he's not turning out custom work or preparing for craft shows, Bronstein teaches newbies how to safely hammer, bend and twist metal rods and bars into household items that are both functional and decorative. It was a year before we got around to taking the class. But in the car on our way home, it took us less than an hour to decide that we wanted our own forge. A few weeks later, Jack and I bundled in layers of cotton clothing to shield ourselves from potential burns and began heating and hammering our respective projects: a new pair of tongs for Jack and a set of basic hooks for me. Our blacksmith gear's first landing spot was outdoors, tucked away behind our tiny sugar shack. We figured that while we boiled sap, we could also be working metal. Jack built a rustic bench to hold the cobalt-blue anvil and a wooden platform topped with cinder blocks for the forge. More recently, we've moved these tools indoors, and the forge now sits on a metal cart, a safer, fireproof solution. For aspiring homesteaders like us, smithing in tandem may rank as one of the ultimate date activities — even in the winter with noses running and toes growing numb. There's something romantic about taking turns at the anvil, moving around each other in a dance of hammers and sparks, and then triumphantly installing new handmade items around our home. Twelve months after that class with Bronstein, our rustic cabin in St. Johnsbury offers ample evidence of our budding hobby: hooks hanging from a beam in the…