Welcome Chad and congratulations on your knifemaker showcase in Blade. Good looking hunter. I look forward to seeing more of your work. Welcome again.

Brion

Welcome Chad.

Hi Bill,

No, that must be another Greg. I'm originally an Upstate NY guy.

- Greg

Wow!! I'm geeking out! Just had some of my favorite makers leave comments, unbeleivable amount of talent on here, wish I could make it to the Blade show and meeet ya. Thanks

Welcome to the Forum Chad!!

Hi All.

A brief introduction to me .

Born in The Netherlands in 1975 to a family of plumbers.

Learned old-fashion plumbing from a very young age. Old techniques..... zinc/copper guttering, pooring lead in sandformes, zinc/copper waterreceivers, all custom.

Moved to the caribbean at age 17, became the island plumber on a very small island (St. Eustatius, population 3100, 35 miles from St maarten) where I did restaurationwork on coltural herritage buildings using the origional techniques. My family had the island hardware shop and I always enjoyed serving our customers, people came to me with most of their technical problems.

Bladesmithing (stock removal) has always been a hobby to me but lately i found myself making machette's for all my friends since the ones i made were a better quality than were sold in the shop.

Now after 19 years we sold the business and being single and having some money saved up i decided to pursue my dreams, or at least give it a shot trying.

My father always told me (he died last year) that if you wanted to learn something you should be willing to do the work and be open to learning.

And if you are going to invest your time and effort into something to do it the best way you seem possible and to find the best people you can get to teach you.

So after some searching on the web i found ABS and the Texarkana school, planning to attend later this year to get my introduction to forging.

During my travels I always admired the leathercraft colture in the south of Spain and found someone teaching traditional leathercarving there so I am attending a course later this year in Granada, Spain.

I would also like to learn woodworking (handles) and engraving.

But that will be for later...id be happy just to learn the basics so....eventually......the goal is to become as all-round as possible.

And to perhaps...maybe....one day make a profession out of producing decent quality blades.

Hope to meet as many as possible of you soon,

respect,

Anton Kanters

Anton:

Welcome to the American Bladesmith Society and the ABS Forum! I saw your new membership come in yesterday on my computer within seconds of your joining the ABS. Let me know if I or one of the Forum Moderators can assist you in any way.

Please feel free to ask questions and our ABS Master Smiths, Journeyman Smiths, and Apprentice Smiths will participate in discussions with you. We are an educational organization and freely share our knowledge of the forged blade as you can see from our Website and Forum.

Anton, Welcome to the ABS and the forum. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I look forward to meeting you in the future. Welcome again.

Brion

Anton,

I saw that you are planning to take the bladesmithing course. If your class is in July or August, be prepared for extreme heat. As Brion said, you can usually catch a ride to town for some supplies, but dont delay in aquiring plenty to drink. If it worked out that you can take in the Fall Piney Woods Hammer In, you will enjoy that as well. You sound like a great addition to the ABS and I look forward to seeing your craft develope. If there is anything that we can do please ask. Lin

Hmmm thought i replied already......strange.

Thank you on the advice about liquids.... I can imagine you have to keep hydrating if standing over a forge in that kind of weather.

Living in the Caribbean for 19 years...I have had my issues keeping hydrated soldering guttering on roof tops in the hot sun.

Im still in the middle of selling our family store, not everything is finalised so cant register yet, I dont plan on waiting too long tho.

Should be in Europe (netherlandss) again in June, planning a small vacation with my sister in Spain after wich I plan to attend a leathercrafting class to help with making sheats, ill be kinda "close" at that time anyway. http://www.munira.net/leather-craft-course-begginers.html

Not specifically for knifes sheats but i recon the techniques remain the same.

Should be In Texarkana for the Nov 28 - Dec 9 course dates.

Am now in West Palm Beach, Florida for this week, showing the new storeowner our suppliers and such.

Respect,

Anton

Hello from Nova Scotia

I'm new to knifemaking and forging but eager to learn. I have only forged 6 knives and 4 hatchets so far, but I'm enjoying myself. Hopefully I can learn a lot from the fourm and members here.

Bradley

Welcome to the American Bladesmith Society and the ABS Forum. ABS members are ready to discuss bladesmithing topics and answer your questions.

Hello Bradley and welcome to the forum and the ABS. If you have any questions feel free to post and we will do our best to answer them.

Welcome again.

Brion

Shawn! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

Shawn that bug is hard no cure <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> welcome aboard

Dave