We want to extend this invitation to you.
The 15th Mid America Bladesmithing Symposium and Knife Show at the Miami County Fairgrounds, Troy, Ohio, August 23, 24 and 25, 2019.
We have an excellent line up of demonstrators this year.
Master Smith, J. W. Randall will be here from Louisiana, demonstration Damascus.
Joel Worley will demonstrate forging and grinding blades.
This is an excellent opportunity to learn from experienced bladesmiths, no matter your present level of Bladesmith, you will learn a lot.
Bill Wiggins from North Carolina will discuss knife sharpening.
Master Smith, Kevin Cashen, from Michigan will be helping you all with knife design and heat treating.
Kevin Cashen and Bill Wiggins will be going over judging standards, helping all get ready for presenting knives for JS or MS.
Mastersmith Joe Keeslar will demonstrate file work and silver wire inlay.
Mark Zalesky, editor of Knife Magazine and member of the Antique Bowie Association, from Tennessee will be in a classroom giving a talk on Antique Bowies.
Brett Smith from T-Star Leather will be doing a demo on leather sheaths.
Terry Sheridan, from Ontario Canada, will forge a small axe and a tomahawk.
Our Friday evening session will be on grinding belt selection by Tom Noppert from Preferred Abrasives.
Our evening session for Saturday will be a new Apprentice Forging competition.
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 over 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 several 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 and auction. 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 have several vendors already signed up which we are sure you are all looking forward to. Hawkins Knife Supplies, Wood Lab, T-Star Leather, Preferred Abrasives, and Little Woody's Stabilized Wood. We will update you with any other vendors as we hear from them.
We will start our weekend on Thursday with registration time and the optional demonstrator’s dinner. Let the office know if you can 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. If at all possible please pre-register, it will help us with the line of registrations at the event.
The Auction and knife show on Saturday afternoon, August 24, 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. But the knife show is another good educational tool, seeing what others are doing, what can be done is a great learning experience also.
Please be sure to bring items for our auction. Any item is welcome, hand made items, tools you no longer want, everything helps. 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.
A link is attached with the schedule and registration.
Butch Sheely
Journeyman Smith
Just a fantastic hammer-in at a great place.
Count me in.
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
My plan is to make this my first hammer-in! So long as work cooperates...
Hey everybody, 6 weeks till the hammer-in!!
We are very excited about the new idea Kevin Cashen has posted in the "General Discussion" area about the new contest that he is running for the first time at the Mid America. We hope you will all get a lot out of this in your journey to Journeyman. I believe he needs one more contestant, check it out and get back with Kevin if you want to be in it.
Butch Sheely
Journeyman Smith
Note: Below you will find the post that Kevin Cashen posted in General Discussion, because some of you have complained that you could not find it. This contest will be held at the Mid America on Saturday evening in place of the cutting demonstration. I know your were all looking forward to throwing tortillas at Kevin, but, this will be even more fun and more educational.
Here is the post from Kevin Cashen repeated.
Are you an apprentice member who would really like to shorten the learning curve and the path to a Journeyman’s rating? The ABS is offering a new opportunity that is exciting, entertaining and educational. In the past we have hosted “Battle of The Bladesmiths†competitions that involved Journeyman and Master Smiths at our hammer-ins but, while they offered plenty of entertainment, the short times sometimes fell a little short of its full potential in the ABS’s primary mission of education on how to carefully make a forged blade.
Premiering at the ABS Mid-America Bladesmithing Symposium will be a new competition, if we get enough competitors, with the winner earning a scholarship to an ABS Intro to Bladesmithing course.
How will this competition be different from those in the past?
The Competitors will be Apprentice level ABS members who are hoping to advance in the craft, with the emphasis on doing their best work and displaying the best bladesmithing techniques without the need to rush or beat the clock. The participants will be given more than enough time to produce the best forged blade they can, and that is all. They will be judged on forging alone, of a predetermined blade. The winner will be determined by a panel of highly qualified judges, and will receive a scholarship to attend an ABS Intro to Bladesmithing Course.
Sounds really good doesn’t it? But there is a catch, or even more icing on the cake, if you think about it. The contest will be videoed, and the winner will have their subsequent efforts followed, whenever possible, to show the path to the Journeyman stamp on the ABS YouTube channel. We believe that documenting the story of a lucky Apprentice smith competing, training and, eventually, passing the Journeyman judging will be both entertaining as well as educational about what it takes to actually become a Journeyman bladesmith.
The competition will be limited to 4 contestants.
To participate you need to be:
A current ABS Apprentice smith level member, in good standing that is 18 years or older.
Registered, and in attendance, at the ABS Mid-America Bladesmithing Symposium in Troy Ohio, August 23, 24, 25, 2019.
Willing to have yourself videoed for the ABS YouTube Channel, during the competition, the class you win a scholarship to, and other efforts or events leading up to, and including your testing and Judging for Journeyman Bladesmith.
Those interested in competing can contact me ([email protected]) to be put on the list of potential competitors. The list will be first come, first serve, so you want to act fast. There will 4 competitors, but only those who actually show up on the night of August 24 will compete. So, we will be taking names beyond the first four so that there is a list of alternates in the case of a “no showâ€.
The competition will be taking the place of the “Cutting Demonstration’ on the list of events.
Cindy Sheely
ABS Office Manager
(419) 832-0400
[email="[email protected]"][email protected][/email]
I'm sure for those who have attended this event, or any hammer in for that matter, knows this but I would just like to say how useful this was. This was my first hammer-in and in just the short time that this was, I learned quite a lot as well as made many connections in the bladesmith community. I'm extremely glad I went and would recommend everyone go, I know that this will not be my last hammer-in.
I would also like to thank all the demonstrators and ABS staff as well as the SOFA staff for their time and effort in making this a great experience for me!
