Hello Scott, 

The time served must be consecutive.  If you miss six months, or a year, but get back to your membership, you would need to pay all back dues and late fees to make up for the time lost, otherwise you start over with the newest join date with a continuous membership.   

Folks often get confused by the time requirements for JS, and the parameters.  Your time required is 3 years from the date of joining and being issued your Apprentice membership.  If you joined in May of 2019 you could test in June of 2022.  if you joined in August of 2019, you could test in June of 2023 but not in June of 2022, as a full three years had not elapsed.  You can take your physical test anytime in leading up to your judging, and it is best to do it at least six months before the judging so that you could conceivably squeeze in another test should the first one not work out so well.   All of the parameters still work, but the time required drops to two years if you have successfully completed an approved ABS Intro to Bladesmithing course.    

Thank you for the quick answer. I had a feeling this was the case, so one more year it is.

More practice time never hurts. 😊 

Scott, as well, you would not be wasting Rick Dunkerly's time by doing your performance test, even if you are not ready to present your five knives in Atlanta.

" An applicant has three (3) years from the date of the performance test to present his or
her test blade, Performance Test Certification Form, and five (5) completed knives at the ABS
Annual Show and Meeting for judging by the ABS Judging Panel. If the applicant does not
complete both phases of the test within a three (3) year time period, the applicant must
reapply and complete the performance testing process again."

I would suggest doing your performance test - when you are confident with passing - when you are ready, simply to get it out of the way.

And for clarification: "A Regular (Apprentice Smith) member may take the performance test with a Master Smith following two (2) years of membership in the ABS. However, an applicant is not eligible to apply for Journeyman Smith judging and rating at the Annual show and meeting, until he/she has been a member of the ABS for three (3) years with the anniversary based on the date of the annual ABS business meeting at the Blade Show."

(I can't attest to the weird spacing on this text - I can only apologize. It doesn't look like this in my text box before posting. Sorry)

I second Karl's advice!    It only makes good sense to get your test knives to as many MS as possible for review BEFORE taking them for presentation testing.   I'm in Great Falls, so it would be on the way to or from you test if you're going to Lincoln.  😉

Thanks everyone for the answers to my question. I will definitely take heed of all the advice.

I almost look at the extra time as a gift now.