Jay Noone
Blacksmith. Mentor. Organizer.
Meet Jay
Jay Noone is a blacksmith and the founder of Mancamp — a hands-on program that puts real tools in the hands of kids. The idea took shape back in 2014, and he's been running Mancamp wherever there's room for an anvil ever since: festivals, friends' properties, his own backyard in New Hampshire.
Jay speaks on the work at events, hosts small and large Mancamp gatherings when he can, and keeps showing up at the forge because the kids keep showing up too.
Thirty feet from where I'm typing this, a third generation home schooler is teaching dozens of children how to blacksmith.
My young kids regularly shoot guns, climb tall objects, and live with a degree of sovereignty that feels increasingly extinct.
(I still make them do math)
— Jeremy Kauffman
Who Jay Is, What He's About
Jay's work starts where a lot of modern parenting stops — with the conviction that kids thrive when adults they trust are genuinely present. Mancamp is one expression of that. So are the talks, the events, and the quiet hours at the forge.
It starts with choosing to ENJOY your children. Then building a lifestyle where you CAN invest time and be the most important voice in their life. They WILL be influenced... who are you giving that role to in their most impressionable years!
Make them your mission. Your hobby. Your vision.
And they will make you proud and bless your socks off someday!!
— Brenda Martin
A quote Jay shares often — it captures the why behind the work.
Where to Go
Mancamp →
Jay's ongoing blacksmithing project for kids. What it is, who runs the forge, and where Mancamp 2026 is happening.
Videos →
Jay's podcast, plus footage from Mancamp, the farm, and interviews where Jay's been a guest.
Support →
Donate crypto, browse products Jay recommends, or find other ways to help keep Mancamp running.
Beyond Mancamp
Mancamp is the formal version of something bigger. Across the Shire — the New Hampshire liberty community — and out through the wider Free State Project, families are raising boys and girls who can muck stalls, stack hay, run a forge, butcher a chicken, and finish what they start. The conviction underneath is simple: kids become capable adults by doing real work, with real tools, alongside grown-ups who trust them to figure it out.
Jay has been part of that effort for years before Mancamp had a name. Some of it happens on his farm. Some of it on neighbors' farms. Some at homeschool co-ops, festivals, and kitchens where a small kid is cracking eggs because someone handed her the bowl. Mancamp is the version that scales — a week where the work shows up on a schedule and the safety gear is already laid out.
Fionia shoeing a pony. A kid learning farrier work — fitting and shaping a horseshoe with a real animal at the end of the line.