BALCONES FORGE

Blacksmiths of Central Texas

February 2002

Larry Crawford-President Gerald Pollard-Treasurer

Jerry Achterberg-Vice President Vince Herod-Editor Harvey Wise-Secretary

Meeting Info

Tom (the Blacksmith from Wimberley) Leining will host the February 2002 meeting of Balcones Forge at his place in Wimberley. The date will be February 23 and plan to arrive around 9am. Tom has some Colonial Butterfly hinges he will demo and Charlie Stolte is finally going to show us how he makes his braided wire crosses. Tom and Charlie will work til they are done and then we will call it a day.

From the Prez

Congratulations to Balcones Forge and all the members for another really stellar workshop. Everything went well and as planed. We learn a little more each year we do these workshops to streamline and organize these events. Maybe were working up to hosting an ABANA conference some day? I just want to thank the following persons: Jerry Achterberg for helping coordinate the workshop. Vince Herod for getting the word out with the newsletter, and for being one helluva auctioneer. Harvey Wise and Gerald Pollard for keeping track of all those details; as in money and registrations. Bob Pheil for securing the seating and hosting Robb. Tom Lupton "the coffeeman". Gary Hilton should be congratulated because he contacts these demonstrators and gets them here. I really appreciate the crew that showed up Friday to help prepare for the show. Stretch made a fine hood for the forge so we could all breath a little easier. Thanks to all who donated to auction and to those who made purchases. A great deal of appreciation to Rob Gunter for his wonderful demos, and the information he articulated to us so well. John Crouchet was my" right hand man" and he helped me with a lot of pre-event work, and also the use of his truck and trailer. I apologize if I left anyone out, but the bottom line is it takes many dedicated people to put on these events, and I feel privileged to be associated with all of you guys and gals!

Robb Gunter answers a question while George Craig keeps the fire hot. Photo by Gerald Pollard.

New Members

We have so many new members as a result of last month’s demo that you will find a new roster attached to this newsletter. PLEASE NOTE: membership in Balcones Forge will expire on August 31, 2002. Hopefully you all will want to renew at that time.

Secretary’s Report

Jan. 25, 26 and 27 we held the first of our meetings for the year 2002. It was also Balcones Forge’s first time to host the Winter Demo. We had a good turn out on Friday to clean and rearrange Larry Crawford's shop, those helping out were Gary Hilton, Jerry Achterberg, George Craig, Larry Crawford, Larry Stevens, Chris Smith, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Harvey and Helen Wise and John Crouchet. We probably had some others that I missed out on catching there names and am sorry for that but Thanks to everyone that showed up as we couldn't have done it with out your help.

Sat. We started out with a few announcements and then the introduction of our guest, Robb Gunter. Robb gave a brief Bio of himself and his previous work experience. After that he got down to the task of demonstrating for us. He started with a demo of an angle pein hammer. Showed how he shaped the stock and the pein also punched and drift the handle hole. He then demoed some flowers and 3/4" pipe forgeing, afternoon was spent with some work more forgeing and how to Identify steel by a spark test. After most of the demo was over Robb made the Touch Mark for Mr. Box that he got by being the top bidder in the Auction.

Sun. We got started again at 8:00 am as we had a full morning of demos to go through that included two different size wire baskets. One wire basket was made from 1/4' wire rods and forge welded to a 1/2" rod that had a tenon forged on one end , the other was from #9 wire and was a real cute little basket as well as very different from others I have seen . He then talked about Anvil Repair and Power Hammer Die making and repair. I know there will be something I did not report on but I was having such a good time watching Robb that there was no way to make note of everything.

We had the evening meal at the Jammin House Restaurant. After our meal we had a very good Iron in the Hat Auction as we had 40 items to bid on and a quick count of the total came up to $2335.00, but Gerald will have the real amount in his report. After the meal Robb showed us the pictures of the project that he and his sons have been working on for the past two years, some real detailed work in all of it.

After Robb finished up Sunday we all put Larry's shop back like we found it, and it didn't take long with all the help we had from everyone. Thanks to Everybody!! We had 66 people sign in at the demo but had more than that there as I know not everyone signed in. It was an excellent demo and we all had a good time; also the weather was perfect.

Treasury Info

As you should know by now, we have a new treasurer. Please remember to make any checks out to Gerald Pollard because Balcones Forge does not have it’s own checking account just yet.

Library Info

We have now acquired a number of new and interesting blacksmithing books that will be available for checkout at the February meeting. We are receiving design books, technique books, and beautiful new picture books by Dona Z. Meilach, Jack Andrews, and other great smithing authors. These new acquisitions will add a lot to our current library.

Please remember to bring to the meeting at Tom’s any books and videos that you have currently checked out. In addition, I would ask each of you to please remind at least one Balcones Forge friend to return theirs also. We all benefit by keeping our books and videos circulating. Thanks for your cooperation.

I am happy to report that the big January demo brought the return of a number of our overdue books and tapes. In addition, we will have even more NEW selections available at the February meeting. Harvey and Helen Wise have graciously donated a new copy of "The Art of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer, the book that began the blacksmithing renaissance in America back in the 1960's. If you have not yet read this book, it will be a real eye opener.

I have already received our new selections of "Best of the Hammer's Blow" and "Anvil's Ring - the First Five Years" and we are expecting more new arrivals any day now.

We have a growing budget for acquiring new books and tapes for the membership. Help us to build a terrific blacksmithing library by recommending new tapes and books. (Perhaps some book that looks really interesting, but is a bit too pricey to buy for yourself!) This is a fine way to help educate ourselves and others about the mysteries of Blacksmithing.

Web Site News

All Balcones Forge members with web access need to check out our wonderful website. Scott Little is our web master and does a fine job indeed. Look close in this newsletter and you will find the address.

Upcoming Events

The National Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metals Association is meeting at Moody Gardens in Galveston, March 5-9, 2002. For those of you who would like to take advantage of all the educational opportunities there will be a cost of $160 for NOMMA members and $200 for non-members. Seeing the vendors is free. For all of the details see: www.nomma.org.

The Houston Area Blacksmith's Association will host a treadle hammer workshop March 15 - 17, 2002. Clay Spencer will be here to coach us. This workshop will be limited to about 24 people. Les Cook will be coordinating the workshop activities for HABA. You can get in touch with Les in two ways: 281-481-2457 and anvil@flash.net.

Little Giant power hammer rebuilding class March 22 through 24, 2002. Sid Suedmeier and Fred Caylor will lead this very “hands on” workshop. The cost is only $95 dollars but you have to get yourself to Nebraska. Space is limited and this is the only scheduled class this year. Call 402-873-6603 for information.

APRIL 13-14, 2002 - Dancing Hammers in Plano Texas with Ward Brinegar from Santa Fe, New Mexico. DH'02 will be at the Plano Heritage Farmstead, 1900 W. 15th, Plano, Texas, <museum@airmail.net>.

Sponsored by the North Texas Blacksmiths Association and the Plano Heritage Farmstead Museum. Featuring blacksmithing demos, tools for sale, dancing, music, family fun. Free, no reservation required. NTBA home page http://www.flash.net/~dwwilson/ntba/. For more info, contact Verl Underwood, 613 N. Bailey, Ft. Worth, TX 76107-1005;

Saturday, April 13, Blacksmithing Demonstration 9 am - 5 pm, Auction and barnyard dance with live music 7 pm - ?

Video Review

Forged Animal Heads with Bill Epps, Learn How to Forge Dragon, Ram, Long Horn Steer and Horse Heads. 32 minute video tape. 2002. Order from Love of Art Productions, www.teachingtapes.net,

Introducing a new series of video tapes by Bill Epps is this new edition, filling a necessary gap in many video libraries. The video concentrates on creation of a sometimes difficult subject. But with the help of this experienced teacher, the learning curve is lessened considerably.

A short bio of Epps reveals some of his varied knowledge, from his service in the Navy, and as a Farrier and machinist. The mechanical background is reflected in Bill's personality, mixed in with a touch of humor. Together these qualities form a video that is both educational and enjoyable to view.

Not a person to dawdle, Epps quickly gets to business with a short tool list showing the required and easy to forge equipment. This is followed by a series of drawings of each project, making the procedures easier to grasp. Tight close ups by videographer Ron Hardy easily define the formation of the iron animal heads. Bill's voice over describes his hammering action with excellent step-by-step detail. Only concise forging action and vital information, required to learn the projects, are shown on the video.

Forged Animal Heads with Bill Epps will be a fine addition to any blacksmithing tape library. In anticipation, we will look forward to more video creations from Bill Epps.

John Crouchet hopes to bring us a book review each month. He is off to a good start. Ed.

One of the original founders of ABANA, Alex Bealer was an advertising executive who became interested in blacksmithing in the 1960's when blacksmithing in America had almost completely died out. He ressurected the knowledge of this dying art by studying with and interviewing some of the very few remaining blacksmiths in the rural southeastern United States.

"The Art of Blacksmithing" is the product of that quest for knowledge. In 430 pages, with over 500 hand drawn illustrations, Mr. Bealer carefully and clearly describes and shows all the basic forging operations and blacksmith's tools as we know them today. The forging of froes, axes, kitchenware, hardware, and even tomahawks is covered here, often in great

detail. If you are building a blacksmithing library, this book should be your FIRST purchase! It is available from Norm Larsen books at 1-800-743-4766, or from amazon.com on the web. It will also be available for checkout at the February Balcones Forge meeting. See you in Wimberley!

At our demo last month, Robb suggested a past issue of Anvils Ring as a good resource. Sue Murray has tracked down how to get your very own copy. Ed.

If anyone wants a copy of the Anvil's Ring, 1983, 10th Anniversary, Vol. 11, No. 1...that has all of the snazzy repousse patterns in it, you can get it on the ABANA website, Publications button, at http://www.atlasbooks.com/abana/ring.htm for $8.

I ordered an extra one for our library. If we have it already, I'll put it in Iron-in-the-Hat.

More Pictures

New photos of Robb's demo at the Balcones Forge meeting, Jan., 26-27, 2002, in the file section of Texas Blacksmith. They are six small

Happy Anniversary

The Houston Area Blacksmith’s association is five years old this month. The first meeting took place at Dave Koenig’s Tudor Forge on February 22, 1997. Congratulations!

Trade Item

Tom has left it to your editor to pick this month’s trade item. After nearly ninety seconds of deliberation, the winner is…………...

If you are new to the group (or you just forgot), here is how it works. Each month the host of the meeting (or me) picks a trade item. If you make one you get to trade for one that someone else has made. We use two-part tickets to keep the system fair and it is a great way to see how others approach the same item.