Meeting Info
Sources tell me that the next meeting of Balcones Forge will be at Evensen Ironworks, Inc. 9:00 a.m. Saturday, March 30, 2002.
Gary
says Gary Hilton will demonstrate some fancy forge welded baskets and Tom
Lupton will show us the secrets of those high-tech Lupton finishes we have all
admired at the entrances of prominent real estate developments around Austin.
The
Dutch Oven Society has agreed to have their March meeting at Gary and BAnn's
house the same day and will be cooking lunch..
Their
price for the meal will be $7.00 each. Folks,
this will be some good eating!
I don't know what all of the program is, but rumor is Jerry Achterburg may demo something as well.
From the Prez
Thanks to everyone who made our February meeting a success. Tom Leining for hosting and "Demoing" and Charles Stolte for the braided cross demo, which I had a particular interest in; and since, I bought it. Thank you Charles. The weather was perfect and several new persons showed up and I was somewhat negligent in welcoming them, but newcomers are always welcome!
The
March meeting will be hosted by Bea & Gary Evensen and we should be in
high spring; enjoy these days. The time for comfortable Blacksmithing is
fading, and the dog days of summer will soon be here.
Larry
Crawford
New & Re-newed Members
As
expected, there are some adjustments needed to the roster that accompanied
last month’s edition. Please
follow along in your hymnals and make the following corrections and additions:
John Jobe
123
Tall Timber Loop
Whitney,
TX 76692
254-694-9160
johnjobe2000@yahoo.com
Wil Smith
3933
Spicewood Springs
Suite
E-200
Austin,
TX 78759-8756
George Craig
9080
Camino Del Sol
San
Antonio, TX 78255
Guy Robinson
4815
W. Braker 502-131
Austin,
TX 78759
Jack Allinson
P.
O. Box 21834
Waco,
TX 76702
254-666-6817
Lee
Catlow
719
S. Creekwood
Driftwood, TX 78619
512-894-4322
Guido
Schindler
P.O. Box 77115
Houston, TX 77215-1115
maryann@schindlermetalworks.com
Tommy
Judson
106 Chuckwagon Trail,
Georgetown, Texas 78628
512-864-0568
tommyj@thegateway.net
Lupe Urdiales
1088
Park Plaza
Apt.
312
Austin,
TX 78753
512-977-9834
fraguablacksmith@prodigy.net
Ren Garcia
1215
Norwood
Austin,
TX 78722
512-407-9212
rengarcia9@hotmail.com
Rebekah Frank
4550
Days End Road
Wimberley,
TX
512-847-1861
temperedtempt77@hotmail.com
Pete Farmer
3906
Avenue H
Austin, TX 78751
512-451-0150
Change
“Lyle” Holt to “Todd” Holt and add John Holt at the same address.
Also
please note that John Van Strien’s name was not listed correctly.
Finally,
Jim Galish’s e-mail address is:
egalish@aol.com.
Editor’s Report
Three
dozen folks showed up on a beautiful spring morning for the February meeting.
After a few brief announcements from the officers, our host
“Tom-the-blacksmith-from-Wimberley” got the demonstrations off to a fine
start by showing us all how to make a colonial styled butterfly hinge.
Next
up was the long awaited braided cross. Charlie
Stolte says the idea for the cross came to him one night while he was trying
to go to sleep. Judging from how
popular this item is, we need for Charlie to have a few more sleepless nights.
Nine
people participated in the trade item and there were nine very fine letter
openers.
The
six items donated for Iron In The Hat brought in $158 dollars to our treasury.
Thanks to Tom Leining, Harvey Wise, Jerry Achterburg, Stretch, Tom
Lupton, John Hawkins and Charlie Stolte for donating.
Arron Tilton, Larry House, Rick Dawdy, David Wagner, Tony Ahuero and
Larry Cawford should be thanked for doing the purchasing.
To
finish the day, we took a tour of the house our host is building mostly by
himself. Tom sure isn’t afraid
of hard work and has something of which to be rightly proud.
Membership Cards
By now
all of our new members should have received a membership card for this year.
Do not by shy if you didn’t get yours; they make great bookmarks and
are a constant reminder that our membership year ends on August 31st.
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.
Gerald
Pollard
14309
Friendswood Lane
Austin,
TX 78737-9104
rgpollard@earthlink.net
Web News
A movie
of Peter Ross is on the NTBA web site. It's a Quicktime movie, 6 min., 47
sec.,/24 meg. So a high-speed connection is best to download, dial up will
take a long time. The url is
http://www.flash.net/~dwwilson/ntba/ross.mov
Some
photos and description of my new Light-Weight Coal Forge design at
http://www.flash.net/~dwwilson/ntba/coalforge.html
--
David
W. Wilson
President
North
Texas Blacksmiths Association
Upcoming Events
Little
Giant power hammer rebuilding class March 22 through 24, 2002.
Sid Suedmeier 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.
This
info provided by John Crouchet.
We
seldom see our buddy Bill Bastas at meetings anymore since he is now teaching
a Saturday blacksmithing class at Austin Community College. However, for those of you who would like to see Blacksmithing
Bill in action, he will be demonstrating with George Dixon and Michael Bondi
at "Forging on the River IX" in Memphis, Tennessee on March 22 and
23. The River Bluff Forge Council
is hosting the demonstrations.
APRIL
HABA MEETING.
The
April HABA meeting will be Hammerfest VII in Oldenburg, TX April 5 -7, Friday
through Sunday. Hammerfest is an
opportunity for any blacksmith to come to Oldenburg, sell his or her work and
demonstrate for the public. Smiths
are invited to the property of Kenny and Susan Hall at no cost to the smiths.
HABA does pass the hat to help cover expenses incurred by our hosts.
The Hammerfest site in Oldenburg, TX is located at the intersection of
highway 237 and Bauer Road. The
site is on the north end of town on the East side of highway 237.
Oldenburg is located about eleven miles north of La Grange and about 5
miles south of Warrenton. Come
see us to visit, sell or just enjoy being outside!
APRIL 5
-7, 14TH ANNUAL BATSON BLADESMITHING SYMPOSIUM
AND
KNIFE SHOW
The
Alabama Forge Council will host this annual event at Tennehill Historical
State Park near Bessemer, Alabama. This
is a HUGE event. The entrance fee
is $125. Call Bobby Armstrong for
more details at 256-539-3975.
APRIL
13 -14, NORTH HOUSTON HORSE PARK
The
Texas Professional Farriers Association (TPFA) is hosting a clinic. John Warner, President of TPFA, is organizing this event.
Contact John for more information, 281-432-0193 or warnershorses@cs.com.
North
Houston Horse Park is located East of I- 45 North.
Go East on FM 242 2.3 miles. Turn
right on Lexington and drive right into the park.
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;
(817)
626-5909, <vaunder@aol.com>.
Dancing
Hammers Hours:
Saturday,
April 13, Blacksmithing Demonstration 9 am - 5 pm, Auction and barnyard dance
with live music 7 pm - ?
Sunday
April 14, Blacksmithing Demonstration 9 am - 1 pm.
Call
John Forsman at 281-300-5184 for more details.
MAY 3
-5, 11TH ANNUAL OZARK CONFERENCE 2002
The
Blacksmiths Association of Missouri (BAM) will host it annual conference at
the Warren County Fairgrounds in Warrenton, MO.
The
featured
demonstrators are Terrence Clark, a contemporary smith from England and
Missouri farrier, Neal Poort. For
more details contact Pat McCarty at
636-239-3814
or budden51@netscape.net.
Book
Review
Dona
Meilach, well known as the author/photographer of the highly successful
picture book,
The Contemporary Blacksmith, has now followed it with another
sure winner, Architectural Ironwork.
A rather pricey book at fifty dollars, it is worth every penny.
This glossy new book brings together the finest work of many of
the best and "hottest" metalsmiths in the world.
Beautifully done
large-scale photographs chronicle the overall designs and also the finely
worked details from such iron artists as Frederic Crist, Jeffrey Funk,
Tom Joyce, and Albert Paley. Of
course, there is work here from giants of the past, such as Samuel Yellin and
Edgar Brandt, but the real treasures lie in discovering the awesome (and
inspiring) work of blacksmiths like John Medwedeff, Steve Lopes, and others
that most of us have never heard of before.
These little jewels will keep you turning pages, hoping for more.
And, thankfully, there IS more. For
example, check out the absolutely incredible bronze doors on pages 54 and 55,
done by our friend Dorothy Stiegler and her partner, Alan Drew.
See if you can find our own Scooter (Shannon Wright) in the picture on
page 138! Consider the artistry
of design and patination that Corina Rising Moon Mensoff combined for the
sign work on page 86. You will find these fascinating pieces
and literally dozens more.
Architectural Iron Work
is available from Norm Larson, Booksmith (and ABANA supporter) at
1-800-743-4766, as well as amazon.com, Barnes and Noble booksellers and a
whole host of other sources.
John
Crouchet, Balcones Forge Librarian
Chances
to Demo
The
Sinton,TX Chamber of Commerce is looking for Blacksmithing demonstrators for
their Culture Fest. April 6th
& 7th from 11am to 7pm (Sat & Sun) at the San Patricio Fair grounds.
They are trying to get a covered area for the smiths. There is no fee for the
demonstrators and they may sell their goods and services. The fair grounds are
located on the Corpus side of Sinton on Hwy 181.
For
more info call Jerry Achterberg @ 210-661-3293 or Kathy with the Sinton C of C
@ 361-364-3263 (9-5).
4-H
in Grayson County is having an Earthday on Thursday April 25th.
They would love to have a blacksmith demo along with the rest of the
activities. Anyone wanting to
show LOTS of wide eyed school kids the art of blacksmithing please contact
Joyce White. Her e-mail is: ja-white@tamu.edu
Ya'll
come and have a great time.
Trade Item
Lupe
Urdiales has picked the trade item for this month.
And the winner is; a knot! See
how many ways that you can tie a knot in iron.
Charlie
with the cross. Photo by Vince H.
