Blacksmith and Artistic Metalwork risk assessment (NSW)
57 hazards and 451 controls for forges, decorative wrought iron shops and artistic metal studios, already identified and rated. Answer Yes, No or N/A online and download a finished Word report.
Tier 1 · Standard fabrication. 19 activities, 57 hazards, 451 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Run more than one kind of work? See every industry
The 19 activities in this assessment
Every activity is assessed in three parts — Safety (16 hazards), Process Safety (11) and Occupational Hygiene (30). Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your assessment.
✓Access to the Blacksmith and artistic metalwork online calculator, tied to the email address used at checkout. Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your checklist, results and report.
✓A finished Word report (.docx) with every hazard, your answers, the residual risk and your Action Plan already in it — to print, sign and keep with your safety records.
✓The inherent hazard register in Word: every hazard here with what could go wrong, the possible consequence and its starting risk rating, to read before the walk and share with the people you consult.
✓A printable walkthrough checklist for marking by hand on the workshop floor.
What this pack is
Combustion products from solid fuel and gas forges including carbon monoxide, high radiant heat and hammering ergonomics.
Each industry here is a complete risk assessment for one kind of workshop, with the hazards and their starting ratings already identified by a Certified Industrial Hygienist. You answer Yes, No or N/A to the controls, and the calculator works out your residual risk, builds the Action Plan and produces the finished report.
Blacksmith and Artistic Metalwork
Workplace risk assessment for forges, decorative wrought iron shops and artistic metal studios in New South Wales: 19 activities, 57 hazards and 451 controls across safety, process safety and occupational hygiene. Completed in the online calculator, which works out control scores, residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan and produces a finished Word report to print and sign.
- ✓57 hazards across 19 activities, each with its consequences and starting risk already rated
- ✓451 controls listed for you, ranked by the hierarchy of control — you answer Yes, No or N/A
- ✓Colour-coded residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan, worked out for you
- ✓A finished Word report to print and sign
- ✓The inherent hazard register in Word and a printable walkthrough checklist for the workshop floor
Tier 1 · Standard fabrication. 19 activities, 57 hazards, 451 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Run more than one kind of work? See every industry
The most serious hazards in blacksmith and artistic metalwork
A sample of the 57 hazards in this assessment, each shown with its consequence and the starting risk rating given by a Certified Industrial Hygienist before any controls are counted. The controls themselves are in the calculator.
Carbon monoxide causes headache, nausea, impaired judgement and unconsciousness, and it impairs judgement before the person notices anything is wrong. It has no smell or colour. In a small studio with one person working alone, collapse is not discovered until someone else arrives. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 5C.
Zinc fume (metal fume fever), lead from old paint (a lead process with notification and biological monitoring duties), chromate primers containing Cr(VI), cadmium from plating, isocyanates from two-pack coatings. None of these are controlled by the arrangements in a bare mild steel workshop. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Welding fumes are classified IARC Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans, lung cancer, with limited evidence for kidney cancer). Also occupational asthma, chronic bronchitis and reduced lung function. The exposure standard for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) is 1 mg/m3 as an 8-hour time weighted average, and this figure carries through into the Workplace Exposure Limits that apply from 1 December 2026. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Crush injuries, multiple fractures, fatality. Vehicle and mobile plant incidents are consistently among the leading mechanisms of work-related fatality in Australia. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Load dropped onto a person: crush injuries, multiple fractures, fatality. Sling angle is the most common miscalculation, because working load limit falls sharply as the included angle opens up. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Entanglement and degloving, amputation of fingers and hands, severe lacerations; a workpiece drawn into the gap between wheel and work rest can shatter the wheel and eject fragments at lethal speed. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Rapidly developing workshop fire, burns, loss of premises and stock, business interruption. Process Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Workshop fire, flash fire, explosion of a closed vessel, severe burns, fatality, loss of premises and stock. Process Safety · inherent risk 4C.
How one hazard is rated
Hazard S1.1 — manual handling of sections, plate and offcuts — starts at 2D, rated before any controls are counted. The calculator lists 8 controls for it, from elimination and extraction at the source down to PPE, monitoring and emergency arrangements. You answer Yes, No or N/A for each on the floor. Once the last one is answered it works out the control score, applies any severity reduction earned by physical controls, and shows the residual risk as RED, YELLOW or GREEN. Every control you answered No to goes into your Action Plan, most urgent and most effective first, ready for a responsible person and a due date.
A forge burning all day in a small studio
The exposure that defines a smithy is not the arc but the fire. A coke, coal or gas forge burns continuously, the hood draws some of the plume but not all of it, the flue is short or obstructed, and the doors are shut in winter. Carbon monoxide builds through the day. It has no smell or colour, and it impairs judgement before the person notices anything is wrong. In a studio where one person often works alone, collapse is not found until someone else arrives.
Artistic work then brings chemistry into the same room. Acids, ammonia compounds, liver of sulphur and metal salts are brushed, sprayed or used as dips to colour the work, often heated to develop the colour. Sulphide patinas release hydrogen sulphide, which deadens the sense of smell and can be fatal at levels that no longer smell. Non-ferrous and reclaimed material adds lead and copper, and repeated skin contact can sensitise.
Welding and brazing still happen, and welding fume is IARC Group 1 with an exposure standard for welding fumes not otherwise classified of 1 mg/m3 as an 8-hour time weighted average. What differs from a fabrication shop is the combination: radiant heat, an oil quench tank beside an open fire, hammering, and a small space where every process shares the same air.
What an inspector looks for in a forge studio
The assessment starts with the quench tank because it is where a studio fire begins. Is the tank sited away from the forge and off the exit path, with a close-fitting metal lid kept on when not in use? Is it sized and filled so hot work does not raise the bulk oil temperature, with the oil type and flash point recorded? Is a fire blanket and the correct class of extinguisher within reach, and is it understood that water never goes on an oil fire? Is the exit route kept clear of forge, tank and anvil? An open tank beside the forge or on the exit path is a prohibited practice.
It then asks how the forge is ventilated and whether carbon monoxide has been considered, how patination chemicals are stored and used, and whether the fixed plant, the bandsaw, cut-off saw, pedestal drill, linisher and pedestal grinder, has working guards, emergency stops to AS/NZS 4024 and work rests set per AS/NZS 1788.
What most smiths find on their first run through
A typical studio answers Yes on tongs, aprons and eye protection, and No on the air. The forge hood has never been checked for how much of the plume it catches. Nobody has measured carbon monoxide on a cold day with the doors shut. Patinas are mixed on the same bench used for lunch, and the grinder work rest has drifted wide as the wheel wore down.
The top-tier answers that tip hazards into green are physical ones. For stock handling it is a jib crane or trolley for bar and plate above the manual handling limit, and racks rated for the stock with end stops on cantilever arms. For cutting it is a fixed cut-off saw or bandsaw in place of a hand-held grinder, with guards that are never removed.
NOT RATED looks like the quench tank most studios start with: an open drum of oil next to the fire because that is where the work comes out. Answer that it is left open beside the forge or on the exit path, and the quench tank hazard is not scored. The report prints NOT RATED and puts siting and a lid at the top of the Action Plan.
How your controls are scored
Not generic advice — the specific, hierarchy-of-controls measures written into the pack, matched to how these assets actually fail.
Built for the people who do this work
If you operate, maintain or contract to these assets in NSW, this pack is written for your duties.
- ✓Forges, decorative wrought iron shops and artistic metal studios
- ✓Owners and managers who need a risk assessment that stands up to a SafeWork NSW visit
- ✓Safety coordinators covering several workshops or several trades
- ✓Workshops whose insurer, principal contractor or client has asked for a documented assessment
- ✓Trainers and supervisors inducting apprentices onto workshop hazards
Authored to the codes and the law
The Codes of Practice and Australian Standards these documents are measured against, and the legislation behind them.
- §Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW)
- §Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)
- §Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants (Safe Work Australia)
- §AS 1674.1 and AS 1674.2 — Safety in welding and allied processes
- §AS/NZS 1715 and AS/NZS 1716 — Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment
Frequently asked questions
Add an in-house CIH risk assessment review
Complete your risk assessment using our digital engine, then have our in-house Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and Full Member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (MAIOH) review your specific results to ensure bulletproof compliance.
Post-completion expert review
Not sure if you categorised your site’s controls correctly? Complete your online assessment and send us the generated report. Our in-house experts will review your residual risk scores, validate your “N/A” selections, and ensure your action plan adequately addresses your highest liabilities (like hexavalent chromium or LEL environments) before you sign off.
- Scope
- Remote CIH and MAIOH review of your completed calculator report and hazard register.
- Turnaround
- 3–5 business days.
- Pricing
- Remote review is billed at an hourly rate of $250 AUD/hour (total quote based on the number of sections reviewed).
Walk it, answer it, sign it.
The calculator generates a finished, fully formatted .docx record with your Action Plan already inside it. Print it, sign it off, and you are audit-ready for this workshop.
Price in AUD, no GST charged · Jurisdiction: New South Wales — WHS Act 2011, WHS Regulation 2025 and SafeWork NSW Codes of Practice applied
This is a generic risk assessment for a typical workshop of this kind, to support your due diligence — completing it is not compliance in itself. You must answer it for your own site, consult your workers, put the missing controls in place, and get competent advice where it says so — exposure monitoring, for example, is work for an occupational hygienist. The limits are set out at the front of every report.