Hi Folks,
A Brief Overview
I recently attended my third ABS Hammer-in, the third annual New England Bladesmithing Symposium and Knife Show. It started out great three years ago, and continues to grow. I believe there have more people each year and that the event was in the black this summer! There were four ABS master smiths and two journeyman smiths presenting workshops and demonstrations this year as well as others pitching in with the open forge sessions. The days are well organized in their divisions of time, array of subjects, movement of attendees and usage of space and expertise. Most of the sessions ran in two hour increments. Each session consisted of two demonstrations and an open forge area run concurrently. It works well. Some of the presenters invited, via these forums, attendees to bring some of their work and works-in-progress to the hammer-in for review and advice, if they wished. There was a thematic thread woven throughout many of the presentations--such as forging, heat-treating and performance testing--toward meeting the journeyman smith application requirements. I have enjoyed and appreciated these hammer-ins immensely!
Some Thoughts and Ideas.
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Anyone else have any ABS Hammer-in comments and ideas?
All the best, Phil
Phil:
This is an interesting Topic and thanks for posting it.
Master Smith J.D. Smith had a new idea for the New England Hammer-In that was just held in Auburn,Maine. J.D. posted his idea on the ABS Forum just prior to the New England Hammer-In where he was an instructor for several demonstrations including Blade Design, Filework, and Grinding.
J.D. wrote: "As far as my demos are concerned, it would be great if participants brought by drawings or actual blades they're working on for the blade design slot and finishing and filework portions as well. This way I'll be able to give real-time and concrete suggestions to everyone. It wouldn't hurt for people to bring their own files and tools as well; that way they'll be able to try some things while I'm there to lend a hand."
Great idea J.D.! It will interesting to hear more ideas from our members. Are there new demonstrations or classes that you would be interested in?
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
Do any members have ideas or preferences for adding advanced demonstrations such as precious metal clay, gold inlay, handle carving, or engraving to the Hammer-Ins? You may not be aware but our Founder Bill Moran had the first ABS Hammer-In in Dubois, Wyoming more than 30 years ago and one of the demonstrations was on engraving a knife.
Are there demonstrations that the Master Smiths and Journeyman Smiths would like to see added to our Hammer-Ins to advance their skills?
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
It's very good to see that the Hammer In sub forum is reaching out to the JS and MS makers as well. This will add more incentive for these to attend the Hammer Ins. Of course the classes will still lean heavily to the needs of the new makers, but some of the more advanced makers might feel left out if more advanced classes are not offered.
I would like to see some classes on:
Casting
Case Hardening
Soldering of similar and dissimilar metals, tinning, etc.
Texturing
Drawing and knife design
I can think of a couple:
Edge geometery and sharpening.
Clay coating.
One of the biggest decisions at a hammer-in is which demo/discussion to attend where two you really want to attend are going on at the same time. The only way I can think of to help over come this is to re-run the most popular of these at other times.
Last Saturday I drove 3 hours each way to and from Denver to take a class on operating a metal lathe. It was an excellent class and I learned enough to be able to begin using my metal lathe in my bladesmithing work to start making knife components. I got the idea for using a metal lathe originally while viewing Bill Moran's Handles and Guards video. Bill Moran demonstrated the use of a metal lathe to make the guard for a Quillion Dagger on the video filmed many years ago in his Maryland shop.
Is there an interest or demand for demonstrations on the use of a metal lathe, milling machine, or surface grinder at ABS Hammer-Ins?
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
|quoted:
Last Saturday I drove 3 hours each way to and from Denver to take a class on operating a metal lathe. It was an excellent class and I learned enough to be able to begin using my metal lathe in my bladesmithing work. I got the idea for using a metal lathe originally while viewing Bill Moran's Handles and Guards video. Bill Moran demonstrated the use of a metal lathe to make the guard for a Quillion Dagger on the video filmed many years ago in his Maryland shop.
Is there an interest or demand for demonstrations on the use of a metal lathe, milling machine, or surface grinder at ABS Hammer-Ins?
I think that a demonstration for a very knife specific applications would be interesting. I wouldn't want to watch a general how to use a lathe class. However, using a lathe to make a pommel or quillion would be interesting.
Hi Dan,
I for one would love to see demos on mills and lathes.
Dale
Dale Huckabee
Journeyman Smith
dalehuckabeeknives.weebly.com
Something that I would like to attend would be a demo on heat control through the entire blade making process. There is so much to this and it would be great to hear from the masters about how they do it.
Gary
We have the dates and locations for the 2012 ABS Hammer-Ins but the demonstrators and demonstrations are still mostly in the planning stage.
Do any members have ideas or preferences for adding advanced demonstrations such as Quillon Daggers, hamons, using computer software for knife design, precious metal clay, gold inlay, handle carving, using a milling machine or lathe to make knife parts, or engraving to the Hammer-Ins in 2012?
Are there demonstrations that you would like to see added to our Hammer-Ins to advance your skills? Now is a good time to discuss your ideas for what you want to see and learn more about this year. I will make sure that your ideas are brought to the attention of the Hammer-In Coordinators.
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
Hi Dan I would love to see a demo or discussion on hamons at the GSM in March. Would also be interested in using computers in the design process. Thanks!
The two out of the list that jump out at me are hamons and the quillion dagger. Hamons are interesting and I would love to see how others do it. Quillion daggers are fascinating and the ones I have seen are put together with a lot of thought and use interesting construction techniques.
Dale, Gary, Barry and Allen:
Thank you for your requests. I will pass them on to the ABS Hammer-In Coordinators and see if they can work them into their programs.
If anyone else has any additional ideas or requests please post them.
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
This is a great opportunity for members to voice their thoughts of what they would like to see at hammer ins and I encourage everyone to make this an active thread. It is a great chance to make the hammer ins even better.
To that end:
Take down construction
Do's and don'ts tips and tricks in using irovy for handles -- methods to insure your success with Ivory
Advance sheaths -- throat and tip -- silver sheaths
Engraving
Brian
Handle carving is one that comes to mind.
A few years ago Bailey Bradshaw MS did a demo that was nice.
