This is the event Flyer for the 3rd Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium set for October 6th and 7th in Topeka, Kansas.

To download the flyer, Click: 3rd Heartland Flyer.pdf

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at this year's Heartland Symposium. I'll be handling the registration desk and on site registration will begin on Friday, October 5th from 4 to 6 PM at the Washburn Institute of Technology, before the Demonstator's dinner. You can also register on Saturday before the demonstrations begin.

I encourage you to pre-register at the ABS Store at www.americanbladesmith.com, Click: Event Registration. This will speed up your registration process at the Hammer-In.

Cindy will be sending a limited number of items from the ABS Store for the event, so if there is anything from the Store that you want brought to the Heartland, to avoid shipping costs, you will need to let Cindy know at least a week in advance.

If you are sure that you want an event T-shirt please let Cindy at [email protected] know the size you want so you are sure to have it reserved. This year the knives of Steve Culver, Jim Batson and Brion Tomberlin will be featured. We try not to order too many so we don't have dated shirts left over, so let Cindy know the size and quantity as soon as you can and we will do our best to have them. We don't order small, medium or 4x unless we have an advance order for them.

I will see you in Topeka for another great Heartland Hammer-In!

Sally Gauvin Cassidy

[email protected]

I looking forward to this year's Heartland Symposium. We've got some great demos lined up. Should be a lot of good learning's to be had.

My demonstration is listed in the event flyer as "Forge Welding with Kerosene". As a weld with kerosene is a pretty quick demonstration, I expected to have to add something to the demo to fill the two hour demo time. Due to a project that I have been working on, I have been doing a lot of research and testing on forge welding. I've come up with some really interesting results; plus, a lot more questions about what we really understand about forge welding.

I'm going to put together some steel to weld into damascus billets and we'll do a little forge welding experimentation during my demo. I will also prepare some hand-outs with information that I have gathered about forge welding and also forge welding fluxes.

We may learn some things during this demo, or we may wind up with more questions about forge welding. In either case, I promise that it will give you food for thought on the process.

Hope to see you there!!!

Sounds good Steve. I look forward to seeing your demo and the information.

As for my portion. I will be doing a demonstration on hamons. This will be Saturday morning and Sunday morning. For Saturdays section, I plan to give a brief history of hamons and an explanation of just what they are, or at least what my experience has led me to believe. I will also go into the steel types that work best for the funny lines. Then we can move into how to prepare a blade for the coating and types of coatings. Next comes the coating of the blade with the material and the best ways to apply it. Finally for Saturday the blade will be heat treated and hopefully we will get something worth looking at. I will also go into types of quenchant.

On Sunday the session will be, Now we have this blade, what do we do with it to bring out the hamon? This will cover the hand sanding steps, etching,and what to etch with and how long. Then we can move to the fun part, polishing the blade to show the hamon. I will go into what materials I use and what other smiths use. I will have a blade to do this on and we will see how it turns out. Finally we can have a part for any questions.

It should be fun and a learning experience.

I look forward to seeing everyone.

Brion

Cindy sent me the proof for the event t-shirt for the 3rd Heartland Hammer-In set for October 6th and 7th.

I really like that. Big thumbs up from me. They did a great job on it, and the knives look great too. I would say we have a winner.

Brion

Below is the menu for the Demonstrator's Dinner. The dinner is at 6:30pm, on the Washburn Institute of Technology campus. The price for the dinner is $13.00.

Please let me, or Cindy Sheely know if you plan to attend the dinner so we can get a head count for meal preparation.

Steve Culver [email protected]

Cindy Sheely [email protected]

Pulled Pork

Barbecue baked beans

Coleslaw

Cornbread Muffins

Tea

Water

Dessert: Peach Crisp

Steve;

I will be on time for supper.. or dinner as you folks in the far north refer to it!!!

My main demo will be the use of cork and leatner belts for blade finishing. I usually use these; not as the final finish but to set up the knife for a nice hand finished job.

We will try to show how to cut the 800 grit hand rubbed down to about 15 minutes of hand sanding.

I would like to stress that the main focus of all the demonstrators is to share information. As a demonstrator I will learn as much as I give.

As attendees; ask questions, dig into the little details, make us work for our dinner!

My wife says I have about four ounces of brains left, they are yours's for the weekend.

It will be nice to head up into some of that cool northern air.

look forward to seeing you all,

Mike

Thank you Mike. I am really looking forward to your demonstration. I always learn a a great deal from you and appreciate your sharing of knowledge.

Also I just learned today from Steve Culver that Aldo Bruno the "New Jersey Steel Baron" and Al Lawrence "Uncle Al" of Riverside Machine will be at the Heartland Hammer-In. This is a great opportunity to see and purchase some of the best steel and knife maker supplies available. I would recommend that if there is something special that you want either Aldo or Al to bring for you to the Heartland Hammer-In that you call them today so that they can put it on their truck for you. I have ordered many supplies and received excellent advice from each of these men over the years and you don't want to miss this opportunity.

This is their contact information:

Aldo Bruno

New Jersey Steel Baron

Email [email protected]

Web http://njsteelbaron.com

Telephone (973) 949-4140

Al Lawrence

Riverside Machine

Web http://www.riversidemachine.net

Email [email protected]

Telephone (870) 642-7643

I just heard from Ray Kirk. He will be bringing some of his 15N20 and also some 52100 round bar stock. Let Ray know if you have anything specific that you want him to bring for you.

This is all great news Steve. For everyone who has been thinking about attending, this Hammer In will be a really good one. Aldo, Uncle Al, Ray, you could not ask for a better line up of suppliers. This one is definitely a go to event.

Brion

Hey Guys,

I wanted to mention that if you need anything and you will be attending please call or contact the office so we can get it on the truck for you. I'll have a good selection on board but I can't carry everything.

Thanks.

"The Steel Peddler"

[email protected]

973-949-4140

We will be asking each participant to fill out and hand in this survey at the end of the Hammer-In so that we can continue to improve the event and provide demonstrations that you want to see in the future. Sally will have the surveys at the registration desk for you when you check in and get your name tag.

ABS Hammer-In Survey

Thank you for joining us at the 2012 Heartland Hammer-In in Topeka, Kansas. We want to continue to provide a quality educational experience at our ABS Hammer-Ins and need your thoughts on this year’s event and ideas for future events. Please assist us by taking a few minutes to complete and hand in this survey. Thank you!

Steve Culver, ABS Heartland Hammer-In Coordinator

1. What did you like about this year’s event?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Overall, how satisfied were you with this ABS Hammer-In?

1) very satisfied 2) somewhat satisfied 3)neutral 4) somewhat unsatisfied 5) very unsatisfied

_________________

3. Was there anything that you did not like about this year’s Hammer-In?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How did you learn about this year’s Hammer-In? (Check ALL that apply)

4a_________ABS Website or ABS Forum

4b _________ABS Journal “ American Bladesmith”

4c _________Knife magazines (examples- Blade Magazine, Knife World)

4d _________ABS Monthly Email Newsletters

4e _________Kansas Knifemakers Association

4f _________Washburn website or flyer

4g _________Other (Please specify)_____________________________________________

5. What demonstrations would you like to see in the future? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you and please hand in your survey at the Registration Desk.

It looks like the weather is going to be perfect. My first time to the Heartland and I will be away from the shop for a whole weekend!!!

Some nice demo's that I look forward to seeing, get to visit with some new folks.

Bring your knives and your toys, we are going to have a great weekend in Kansas.

Mike