Northeast Blacksmiths
Association

Northeast Blacksmiths
Association

Northeast Blacksmiths holds its meets twice a year at the Ashokan Center of New York State. The Ashokan Center is in Olivebridge, N.Y., several miles west of Kingston, N.Y. The meets are held the first weekend in May and in the first weekend in October every year. The main demonstration is in the blacksmith shop and there is a "Hands On" workshop for beginners.

Current Newsletter available near bottom of page

A member sent in some old pictures from a meet many years ago. See an old NBA meet and see if you recognize anybody. If you do contact me and let me know so I can fill in some captions,
Larry Brown
Click here for picts

The Blacksmith Shop at The Ashokan Center
Directions

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Our demonstrator for the weekend is Kim Thomas of Seville Ohio. I first saw Kim demo at a meet in Maryland a few winters ago. I was impressed with his approach to forging interesting forms in steel that simplified the process. His slide show proved to be a surprise with shots of many pieces of Yellin ironwork that he has restored.

Kim started blacksmithing in 1985 with the idea of making muzzle loading long rifles using traditional techniques. That started him on the road to selling hand forged items at rendezvous'. He became proficient at making pattern welded steel and his video “Forging Damascus” was chosen by ABANA as the “Best Instructional Video” in 1996. His work has appeared in numerous magazines including Back Woodsman, Blade, The Anvil’s Ring, and in 1995 and 2005 he was chosen as one of the top 200 traditional craftsmen in the United States by Early American Life.

Kim’s interests have drawn him to work at knife making, ornamental ironwork, repousse, medieval and early American ironwork, as well as forged work in contemporary designs.

On Saturday his demo will start with period lighting of the 18th century, with a focus on basics such as punching, slitting, drifting, making a good tenon. He also plans to make a saw tooth trammel showing how to forge the saw teeth.

In Kim’s words, “I want people to learn that with a little effort these skills can be mastered and done at the anvil with simple hand tools.” It will become obvious then “that it is quicker to do the work at the anvil than to pull out the modern equipment and then take steps to camouflage” it to make it look hand forged. “With these skills in place, forging takes on a new thrill, as all projects are just an orchestration of these techniques. The finished piece is both good looking and sound. That is what gives value to old ironwork and what will impart value to our work.”

On Sunday Kim plans to do some traditional ornamental work, showing how it was done in the days before welders, using easy to master traditional techniques.

A slide show of his recent trip to Europe will show a blacksmith festival at a working windmill in the Netherlands, The Hanns Schell Collection of Ironwork in Graz Austria, a visit to Ybbsitz Austria and the Ferrum Iron Museum plus a video of a five hundred year old drop hammer in operation.

Sounds like a great weekend to me, one not to be missed. As always, bring some of your latest and greatest work – all levels of work are welcome, and some exciting donations for our Iron-in-the-Hat lottery.

Enjoying the first real snow of the season and realizing that it won't be long until our Spring Meet at Ashokan. It may seem that winter is a slow time and that there are no Blacksmith meets or activities between our Fall and Spring meets to attend. Well, that is not the case.

I just returned from the Mid-Atlantic Smiths Assoc. Gichner Memorial Meet outside of Easton MD. We had great weather and good meet with over 160 attendees, and a very successful auction of work by MASA members.

It does seem that not much happens during the winter but there is plenty of Blacksmithing activity in the region.

The Capitol District Smiths meet in and around Albany once a month, contact Jim Moran: bethlehemforge@yahoo.com

The New Jersey Blacksmiths have a weekly "Open Forge" as well as almost monthly events: http://njba.abana-chapter.com Upcoming: April 14 at Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, New Jersey.

There is an "Open Workshop/Demo" planned for February outside of Red Hook, NY.

Many of us look forward to the annual late March meet at Greg Philip's shop in Montgomery, NY.

Berkshire Blacksmiths, contact Mike McCarthy: mohawkvalleyforge@gmail.com

And then there are classes, Tim Miller in Bayport Long Island, just hosted a hammer making class with Nathan Robertson.

Ed Mack of Ice Forge in Florida NY hosts classes at his shop:

Joe Szilaski has knifemaking classes at his new school shop in Pine Plains NY: www.szilaski.com

There are lots of opportunities to expand on your smithing skills as well as socialize with other smiths. Many of these events are posted on the NBA's facebook page, so friend us and also check our webpage for updates. You don't have to wait all year to attend one or two meets, there is a wealth of knowledge out there if you make the effort.

Hope to see many of you at Ashokan and other places in between.

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