Meeting Info

The June 29^th meeting of Balcones Forge will take place at Doc McFadzen’s shop in north Austin. Doc is planning to do some pipe forging under the power-hammer and will, no doubt, have a few other tricks up his sleeve.

The meeting will plan to start at 9 am and you might want to bring a chair.

The address is 9708 D Gray Blvd. Austin, TX 78758. Phone is 512-491-5200. A map is included later in this issue.

From the Prez

Thanks to Wayne Kirkpatrick for hosting the May meeting. All went well with scroll making demos by Gary Evensen and Lupe Urdiales. They displayed some fancy choreography with a striking demo. Wayne, our host, gave a presentation of one of his recent commissions. There was an impromptu report on HABA’s Terrence Clark workshop in College Station that was previous to our meeting. After a full morning, we adjourned the meeting and retired to the refrigerated air of the “Chatter Box Café” for some high fat – low fiber dining.

June’s meeting will be hosted by John “Doc” McFadzen in Austin. John is a former student of mine and a first time host for the organization. I’ll put a tip out here for all hosts & wanna-be hosts (actually two tips). Don’t run out of coffee and wear your safety glasses and your meeting will probably come off in a serviceable manner.

We should be able to hear a report on the ABANA conference; having quite a few members in attendance. I’m looking forward to that. On a final note, I think we as a club should investigate a scholarship fund and putting some of our organization’s capital to work in that area for education.

Larry Crawford

Member Info

Lupe Urdiales has a new address at his new home. 117 Mesquite Springs Drive, Liberty Hill, TX 78642. For now, Lupe no longer has e-mail service.

The new phone number for John Stewart at Texas Tactical is 512-576-3178.

Treasury Info

Please remember to make any checks out to Gerald Pollard because Balcones Forge does not have it’s own checking account just yet.

Gerald Pollard

14309 Friendswood Lane

Austin, TX 78737-9104

rgpollard@earthlink.net

Secretary’s Report

The May meeting was held at Wayne Kirkpatrick's Creative Steel and Iron Works of Texas in Kingsland.

The meeting started at 9:00 am; with Gary Evenson and Lupe Urdiales demoing how to make some pickets for a railing , Lupe and Gary were hammering and striking as they have been practicing especially for this demo. They also showed how to make a ax head out of a piece of leaf spring , Lupe gave a short demo on the making of a picket with a spear head. It was a neat demo as Gary and Lupe had to get used to working on the same piece of iron at the same time. It is not every day that someone needs a striker. We had 6 trade items made that were all nicely done pieces. We had three items for the Iron in the Hat that brought in $105.00 for the treasury.

Wayne also gave at talk on some of his on going work and how he has rigged up his shop. We then broke up for lunch and got back together for some good ol visiting and such.

The next meeting will be held in Austin at Doc McFadzen’s shop. Trade item is a tool of some kind that you all made. See you all next meeting

Harvey

Upcoming Events

IronFest - The Tradition Continues in 2003!

IronFest will be May 29 - June 1, 2003, at the Grapevine Heritage Cener. The 2003 conference will continue the successful format, including the open to the public, fabulous tailgate area and free demonstrations. A separate fee area will present an incredible group of demonstrators including Toby Hickman, Susan Hutchinson, David Court and Mark Pearce. More information about these blacksmiths including photos of their ironwork and biographies are available at ironfest.org. Auctioneer, David Cornett will entertain the audience at the Saturday night auction in the Heritage Center Farmers Market

Building. Please contact the Ironfest Registrar to be included on the mail list and receive a registration brochure. Contact Verl Underwood, IronFest Registrar, 613 N. Bailey, Fort Worth Texas 76107 <vaunder@aol.com>.

David W. Wilson

Chairman, IronFest Regional Conference

Trade Item

Our host this month has selected a “tool” as this month’s trade item. What kind of tool, you say? Well, the answer is any tool that you have made yourself and wish to trade.

Trading Post

NTBA President David Wilson sends this info for those of you who were left wanting a flypress after John Crouchet’s demo.

There are some great new fly presses on the Old World Anvil page at http://oldworldanvils.com/newfly.htm. Owner Dan Morris sells several sizes in both c frame and full frame. Here are a few prices:

No 2 Double Ball Press 220 lbs + fly press with die holders (100 kg) $799.00

No. 3 Double Ball Press 308 lbs + fly press with die holders (140 kgs) $899.00

No. 4 Double Ball Press 374 lbs + fly press with dies holders (170 kgs) $1,199.00

No. 5 Round Fly Wheel 440 kb +fly press with die holders (200 kgs) 1,399.00

Here is some info from a couple months back from Sue Murray.

Howdy Guys & Gals...

The Austin Energy (City of Austin Electric Utility) Reclamation section has utility poles for sale. Their contract to have many of them recycled fell through, so they have tons that will have to be landfilled. They are $0.50/foot and can be sold to the public. They range in diameter and length. They will cut you the length you want, you can specify a diameter, and you can specify "weathered" if you don't want to tangle with preservative. All you need is the trailer to haul them on. They will load them for you. If you are interested, call Jesse Rosales at 512-453-1028 here in Austin.

Bad E-mail

It seems that Gerald and I have incorrect e-mail addresses for a few members. Please be sure and let both of us now if you have a change of e-mail (or any other info).

For now, we need current info from:

Troy DeFrates

Todd Holt

Thanks for your help in keeping our information current.

T.V. Time

Charlie Stolte reminded me to get this info to you folks.

If you get the chance to tune in to HGTV’s series Modern Masters, you will quite often see a segment featuring a blacksmith. Three artists are featured every week and metal workers have been well represented.

In Austin, the show airs on Sunday night at 9:30pm.

Past episodes have included Tom Joyce, Frances Whitaker and (from Austin) Louis Herrera.

Teaching Videos

Here is some new info from Balcones Forge member Ron Hardy.

We at TeachingTapes and Love of Art Productions want to let you know about three great new videotapes we have available for you. If you liked Animal Heads with Bill Epps, we know you will want to check out the next three titles in our series with the same blacksmith--Tongs, Leaves and Flowers, and Birds and Bugs. You get the same great film quality as in the first video, and the subjects are interesting and useful in your own shop; perfect projects for the summer season. We are certain you will enjoy these new titles, and find them informative and useful.

In Tongs, Epps shows the viewer how to create several varieties of tongs for specialized use in the blacksmith shop. Included are rat-tail scrolling tongs, twisted head wolf-jaw tongs, and bolt tongs. Epps discussed the importance of being able to make your own tools for use in your shop.

In Leaves and Flowers, Epps shows how to create several variations of a simple leaf shape to fit different styles of decorative work, plus two specialized species of leaf. Six different flower blossom species are created, ranging from the very simple calla lilly to the intricate rose bud. Uses for these decorative items are discussed and the viewer is encouraged to find his own applications.

In Birds and Bugs, the viewer learns how to create beautiful and whimsical insects and birds for decorative applications on garden furniture and tools, household decorative accessories, etc. Included are a scorpion made from a bolt, a snail, a dragonfly, a hummingbird, and two different swans. Many of the items shown are simple to create, but have lots of impact.

These are great demo items and projects for the new blacksmith.

Please visit us on the Web at www.teachingtapes.net. We are sure you will be pleased with our great looking new site, which is interactive and much more detailed than before. Download clips of the tapes you are interested in, learn about the artisans featured in our videos, peruse the library of offerings. We are constantly creating new videos and adding to our library.

Check back often!

Very soon we will be able to accept payment for your orders online, directly at our web site. Until then, please call us toll free to order, 1-800-382-5967 (pin#00)

We look forward to hearing from you soon. See you at the ABANA conference in June!

Ron and Alan

Love of Art Productions

www.teachingtapes.net

Super Quench

Many folks have wanted to whip up a batch of Robb Gunter’s Super Quench after attending his fine demo in January but are having trouble with one of the ingredients. If you are still searching for the elusive Shaklee Basic “I”, then search no more. Our own Balcones Forge member Kamber Sokulsky is a Shaklee distributor. Since Kamber is a fairly new member, use this as a chance to say hello at the next meeting,

ABANA Board Info

HABA President and Balcones Forge member Dave Koenig has joined the ABANA Board. This article was lifted from the HABA newsletter.

Dave Koenig, President of the Houston Area Blacksmith's Association, was appointed to the ABANA Board of Directors May 17, 2002. Dave will complete two of the three-year term vacated by board member Kirsten Skiles.

More particulars about the appointment can be found on ABANA's web site: www.abana.org. Click on the Business button and look for the May 17 entry.

Dave will get introduced to the ABANA board members next month in LaCrosse, WI. This year the ABABA Board itself is organizing the biannual conference instead of a local chapter. The board gets to arrive early, June 2, and go home late, June 11. In addition to helping setup, run and tear own the conference Dave will attend his first Board Meeting.

To all of the Texas ABANA members who signed a petition May 10 to get Dave's name on the 2002 Board of Directors ballot, he says thank you for your vote of support. It means a lot.

There will most likely be more from Dave about ABANA in the HABA Letter as he begins his term in office.

Terry Clark pictures

For those of you who would like to see a few pictures from the recent Terry Clark demonstration please check out the web page put together by Richard Boswell.

http://www.boswellfarms.com/HABA/

Scholarships

It has been suggested that some of the funds in the Balcones Forge treasury be used as scholarships to various blacksmithing events. If you have any thoughts on the subject please let your officers know what’s on your mind.

Please give some thought to details as more input is needed than “hey, that’s a good idea”.

Web Site Info

This just in from our webmaster.

Unfortunately the new club mailing list, members@balconesforge.org, has been down (again) for nearly a month now. I've been all over the web-hosting company to get them to fix it and recently they have finally admitted that they just don't know how to fix it! We may have to change web-hosting companies to get out of this mess. I'm working on it and I sure appreciate your patience.

Scott Little (little@earthtech.org).

Neil Hastings taking in the May meeting demonstrations. Photo by Gerald Pollard.