We want to extend this invitation to you. The 14th Mid America Bladesmithing Symposium and Knife Show is just 3 ½ weeks away, and will take place, as in the past 14 years, at the Miami County Fairgrounds, Troy, Ohio, August 24, 25 and 26, 2018. We have an excellent line up of demonstrators this year. Master Smith, Jim Rodebaugh will be here from Wyoming, teaching blade forging, grinding, and handles and guards. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from a master, no matter your present level of Bladesmith, you will learn a lot.

Bill Wiggins from North Carolina will discuss setting up a knife shop, tools and equipment.

Master Smith, Kevin Cashen, from Michigan will be helping you all with heat treating.

Kevin was scheduled for a classroom with B.R. Hughes going over judging standards, due to scheduling difficulty this classroom will be handled by Bill Wiggins and Jim Rodebaugh, they will be helping all get ready for presenting knives for JS or MS.

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.

Journeyman Smith Butch Sheely will also have a classroom on Antique Bowies. Brett Smith from T-Star Leather will be doing a demo on leather sheaths.

Jerry Rados, from Kentucky, will be demonstration Damascus steel patterns.

Joe Seabolt, from Ohio, will forge an early American style knife.

Our Friday evening session will be grinding belt selection by Tom Noppert from Preferred Abrasives.

Our evening session for Saturday evening will have a cutting demonstration from Kevin Cashen, Jim Rodebaugh 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 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, 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 have several vendors already signed up which we are sure you are all looking forward to. Hawkins Knife Supplies, Wood Lab, Alaskan Fossil Ivory, 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.

The Auction and knife show on Saturday afternoon, August 25, 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 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.