You are very welcome David. Nice to meet you also. Amazing seeing all those great knives in one place isn't it? Plus all the great people. I always get to see so many friends from around the world. One of the great things about the ABS is it's members, great people.

You have a great attitude and we look forward to seeing you at future functions. I am glad that you enjoyed the show.

Keep forging

Brion

I figured I'd introduce myself and say hi. I made my first knife with a guy kind enough to show me the ropes last fall and a fascination quickly turned into an addiction. I managed to build a gas forge and come up with enough of the necessities to start making knives on my own and realized this wasn't something that was going to lose my interest any time soon. Matter of fact, making knives, tools I want to get, different steels I want to try are all on my mind most of the time I'm awake... With a suggestion from Lin Rhea, I took the plunge and joined the ABS. I feel a long ways behind all the knives I've seen posted on here and quickly figured out some of you "apprentice smiths" are REALLY good while the title suits me much better. All that said, I'm really enjoying learning everything I can and am incredibly thankful for guys like Lin, Karl Andersen, and Ed Caffrey, who have all taken time to out to answer a new guy's dumb questions.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

Welcome to the forum. Try to take advantage of the videos and photos as well as the member galleries. If you have events coming up or you want to find out about events, check out the calendar for shows, Hammer Ins, and such. You can post your events yourself. Be sure to read the picture sizing info too. If you need help with resizing your photos, just holler.

Dan is trying to get us all to have our cameras with us when we go to our various events to document them and share the photos. So have you camera handy.

We're glad to have you with us Jeremy. Lin

Hello Jeremy, good to have you in the ABS and welcome. If you have any questions, post them here and we will do our best to answer them. just as my good friend Lin stated, check out everything on the forum and website. There are tutorials and videos, a lot of information.

I hope to see you at a future event.

Welcome again.

Brion

Welcome to the information overload website. I mean I bet there isn't a question that could be asked that these guys dont know the answer to. WELCOME

Jeremy

Welcome to the American Bladesmith Society and the ABS Forum. Please post any questions that you have and your fellow ABS members will try and help you.

Thanks guys. I've really enjoyed the site so far and have gotten several questions answered. The worst part about making knives is its all I want to do. Driving around at work, eating, watching the kids-always got knives on the brain... Sure wishing I was a lot farther east than I am so I could go to one of the 2 week schools. Have you heard if the ABS has any plans to partner with anyone out west here?

Jeremy

Jeremy

I am glad that you are enjoying the ABS Website.

There are no current plans to add an ABS school beyond the current schools in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Maine. You should try to join us at the ABS Hammer-Ins coming up this Fall at either the Heartland in Kansas or the California Hammer-In.

Hi Jeremy!

I'm just catching up after the Blade Show, and the Southern Alberta Knifemakers Symposium..... Welcome aboard!

Hello,

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Clay Walker ( First name Lowell ). I recently joined the ABS after some gentle prodding by MS Lin Rhea. I intend to pursue and test for the JS stamp in the three year time frame. I started out my forging efforts by taking a basic blacksmithing class, followed by a damascus steel class, and a knife making class from Nick Marcella of Red Troll Forge in Vancouver, Wa. I decided it was time to quite playing around and get serious. I plan to pursue my JS testing in the three year time frame and the MS testing within 4 years of obtaining a JS stamp. My goals are two fold. I want to take my steel working and knife making skills to the MS level, and in that process create a retirement job for myself. I figure if I do this for 20 years I should have all the tools I need to retire and enjoy the process of forging high quality knives.

I have been reading thru the forum threads and have already learned a lot of things that will improve my knives. To date I have focused my forging efforts on the 1080 and 1090 series of steels. After reading thru the threads here I picked up a good quantity of 5160 steel and intend to start working thru the test blade forging and heat treating process to make a blade that will survive the test. After I get that down I plan to start working on the various steps I need to improve on to sucessfully make the five presentation blades that will pass the JS test.

I look forward to conversing with and learning everything I can from everyone on the forum.

Clay Walker

Ragnarok Forge

Clay

Welcome to the American Bladesmith Society! I am glad that you have found the ABS Forum to be a useful source of information and wish you the best in your quest for the Journeyman Smith rating.

Hello Clay and welcome. Knowing Lin it was probably more than gentle prodding. We are glad to have you.

Sounds like you have your goals in order and are going about it the right way. Anything we can do to help just let us know.

Welcome again.

Brion

Welcome Clay!

Brian, all I did was offer a little "encouragement" <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> .

Clay! Good to see you on here. For those of you who don't know Clay, you're missing out. When I expressed interest in learning to forge, Clay invited me over, put me up for the weekend, and showed me the basics and I left with my first knife. I don't think he's ever met a stranger and is willing to help with whatever he can. Anyway, just figured I'd put in my .02 cents and say my piece-Clay's a heck of a guy and exemplifies what the ABS is about. Getting off my soap box now..... <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Jeremy, thanks for the kind words. I am glad we got the chance to meet and form a friendship that I am sure will last a lifetime. I meant what I said about coordinating our testing for JS and sharing costs to travel to Blade or the Winter show. 3 years is not that long of a time. The pressure is on!

Jeremy is a fine gentlemen, highly intelligent, a true family man, and places himself at risk to serve the public in his work. I truly enjoyed teaching the basics of forging and assisting him with making his first knife.