The 11th Mid America Bladesmithing Symposium and Knife Show is upon us again, and will take place at the Miami County Fairgrounds, Troy, Ohio, August 28, 29 and 30, 2015. We want to extend this invitation to you.

We have an excellent line up of demonstrators this year. Master Smith, Timothy Potier will be coming in from Louisiana, teaching blade forging, grinding, and heat treating. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from a master, no matter your present level of Bladesmith, you will learn a lot. If you are in to Damascus, Steve Dunn, Master Smith from Kentucky, is demonstrating Damascus. Master Smith, Kevin Cashen, from Michigan will be forging and grinding a Dagger. Kevin is renowned for his knowledge and expertise with daggers and if you are interested in a Master Stamp, this will be a great opportunity and if you just have interest in daggers and knives, a lot can be learned from the forging demonstration. Kevin will also be giving a talk on Friday evening on the Quillion Dagger. Master Smith James Batson will be in a classroom giving a demo on Antique Bowies. If you crave the Journeyman status or Master status, B. R. Hughes and Kevin Cashen will be presenting on judging standards. Pete Crowl, Journeyman Smith from Indiana, will be doing a demo on leather sheaths. We have had many attendees ask for a leather sheath class. Journeyman Smith Bill Wiggins from North Carolina will be doing his demo on Handles and Guards. You should surely find something that interests you.

Our evening session for Friday evening, as I mentioned will be a Quillion Dagger discussion. Saturday evening we will have a cutting demonstration from Timothy Potier, Kevin Cashen and Bill Wiggins.

If you have never attended the Mid American, I think you will enjoy the experience. The facility at the Miami County Fairgrounds is great. The Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil organization, SOFA, is our host. Sofa also hosts the Quad State Round-up every September, which draws close to 1,000 blacksmiths and bladesmiths, so they are very experienced with large hammer-ins. This makes the ABS Mid American an easy task for them and they take very good care of us.

There are two main forging stations; each with either coal or gas forges. Each station also has its own air hammer. The area for green coal, or hands on forging, has a number of coal forges with all of the hand tools required. The classroom sessions are in a large air conditioned hall, we also use this same building for the knife show, auction and the cutting demonstration. It is always a dilemma to choose what to watch or participate in each day, demonstration, classroom or hands on, but what a great dilemma to have. You see the great line up of demonstrators, some familiar some new, so I think we will enjoy learning all the techniques and ideas.

We will start our weekend on Thursday with registration time and the optional demonstrator’s dinner. Let the office know if you are able to attend so we can give an estimate to the restaurant. All are welcome and we will introduce the demonstrators and guests and enjoy a meal together.

Friday morning we will have the registration desk up and running before the demos start in case you don’t get your badge on Thursday evening.

The Auction and knife show on Saturday afternoon, August 29, is the only time that we are open to the public. We have done what we can to advertise and bring in the public so we have a better possibility of having buyers for the knife show.

Please be sure to bring items for our auction. Any items made by the demonstrators at the event, blades, etc. will be in the auction. Please be generous in your participation as it is what keeps the cost of registration down and allows us to bring in great artists. We thank all who donate and buy.

Come prepared to have an energy filled weekend of learning. This will be your opportunity to learn from Masters, Journeyman and very talented piers. We all will have a chance to learn from each other as we enjoy this weekend.