Financial Forging: Mines Student's Passion for Metals Results in Prestigious Metallurgical Scholarships

At 12 years old, Caleb Oppelt got his first taste of blacksmithing when his dad, a camp counselor for the Cadets, suggested Caleb and his brother Evan work on the blacksmithing merit badge.

“We stuck pieces of rebar in our fire pit and then tried to use a cinder block as an anvil. It was terrible, and we broke the cinder block, but it got us hooked,” Caleb said.

A few years later, the duo won the inaugural Junior Bladesmithing Competition, a contest hosted by South Dakota Mines where high school students from around the nation are challenged to craft a knife or sword by hand hammering or trip hammer forging.

The following year, the brothers, from Goodwin, S.D., took home another championship and purchased a Black Hills blacksmithing shop for $900.

Now, as a sophomore in the university’s metallurgical engineering program, Caleb is using his passion to pay for his education.

This fall, Caleb received thousands of dollars in metallurgical scholarships from organizations such as the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST), The Metals and Materials Society (TMS), the American Society for Metals (ASM), and the Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF). He also completed a summer internship with Scot Forge, a national leader in open die and rolled ring forging.

“It was exactly what I love to do – forging, just on a larger scale. It was awesome,” Caleb said of his internship with the Illinois company. “One of the main aspects that drew me in (to forging) is the ability to heat-treat steel. You can use steel and then make a scraper that is heat-treated and use it to shape the same steel you started with. It was the thermal processing that changed its properties and yet you can now cut the material that it is made out of.”

In addition, Caleb runs his own business, KnightForge Knives, where he creates custom products. Now that he is a full-time student, he has slowed down production.

“It has been great to see Caleb expand his technical knowledge over the years learning the science behind the practical metalworking,” says Michael West, Ph.D., head of the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. “Caleb is also an integral member of this year’s TMS Bladesmithing Competition.”

With his love of forging now fueling both his education and career goals, Caleb is proving that what began as a backyard project with his brother can spark a future in materials science. His journey shows how Mines helps students turn passion into opportunity, combining hands-on learning, industry partnerships and scholarship support to forge successful futures.