Atlantic Coast Blacksmithing Conference, 2008 !
The Images!
Pictures in chronological order.
Thursday, Arriving at the Ashokan Center, the registration booth for early arrivals
Looking down the hill towards the tailgating area
The green coal area at the top of the hill
There was tons of great tailgating at the conference
More tailgating and vendors across the field
This conference had the biggest iron in the hat I'd ever seen... this was just one day's iron in the hat, they had more the next
The first demonstration area
A nice old early late 1700s to early 1800s anvil
Another different late 1700s to early 1800s anvil
A gorgeous old hornless colonial anvil
Another old late 1700s early 1800s anvil... can you tell yet that I like old anvils?
New England Blacksmiths traveled very well to the conference if I had to guess, over 1/3rd of the attendees were NEB
Using a backloader to unload a flypress and a KA75 hammer from the Oldworldanvils people
Someone and David Norrie
Tim welcoming everyone to Ashokan
All the earlybirds at Ashokan thursday hanging out for the opening ceremonies
the KA75 and a #5 old world anvils fly press
Forging a pair of tongs on the KA75
Fullering in the bar
Twisting out the jaws of the jaws of the tongs
Further working the tongs
Supper time, in the dining hall
A work in progress that was brought for the gallery
David Norrie giving a slide show presentation of his work
A nice wally yater swage block, the same one that I own, but with a much nicer and more portable stand
Variable speed Bader B3 grinder, and I think that was Peter Ross's tool box
The bunkhouse late at night
Friday morning, still foggy and misty
The food vendor up at the top of the hill, I had every meal while I was there at these guys, their prices were great
the brook next to the dining hall
People finishing up breakfast
Forging heavy stock with the large air hammer
Finishing the tongs started the day before by drawing out the reins in a continual taper
A finished half of a tong
Peter Ross demonstrating the forging of a hinge
A gorgeous old combo vise / anvil / drill with all the parts, quite a rarity
Mark Aspery demonstrating the forging of a hardy bottom die by hand
Squaring up the hardy tool
People watching Mark Aspery working
Up at green coal, getting a forge started
Discussing how to best start a coal fire
Some forging at the green coal area
The Ashokan resivore in the picturesque catskill mountains
Mark Aspery demonstrating again, this time doing a forge welded collar I believe
Showing how to tell when you're at the right heat for a forge weld
The first blow for a forge weld, a light blow to begin with
shaping the edge of the welded on collar after a deformation from the welding
the welded on collar
The group watching as all this was demonstrated
The group watching David Norrie demonstrating as he created the 2nd half of a window insert
forging one of hte fan like leaf/blades for the window insert
John D'bate sledging for David Norrie
Hanging out and having a few beers with Doug DeLure from the Bader Co.
The main pavillion / demonstration area, along with Iron in the hat and silent auction
David Norrie demonstrating forging a clean sharp angle
An oxy/acy torch is very handy for forging operations like this
People checking out the Iron in the Hat items
The blacksmithing shop at the Ashokan Center
Some stuff in the tailgating area
Peter Ross getting ready for his slide show
The bucket loader moving around made it very hard to talk, they were trying to get ready for hte hurricane remnants that were coming in that night
Some late night forging on friday, late is a relative term it was only around 10
Ralph Sproul demonstrating some power hammer forging
Peter Ross showing some gorgeous forged compasses
Upsetting the end of the bar to become the round joint at the top of the compass
Forging the end flat
Getting ready to swage down the sides of the compas triangular just above where the hole needs to be punched for the wing
Swaging the side of the compas above the wing hole area
Punching the hole for the wing
Zoomed in and better picture of punching the hole
Yet another hole punching picture
Drawing out the lower half of the compass
the swage block used for swaging the side triangular above the wing hole
forge welding a tool steel bit onto the end to be the sturdy point
Forging the end to shape after welding on the tool steel
Swaging down the rest of the side of the compas to triangular
David Norrie demonstrating this neat scroll with attached leaf thingy
Forging in fullered lines to the side thing
What the scroll thing looks like with just the deep fullered lines
Forging in the sides to a more organic shape
The finished scroll piece
Riveting the pieces for the window insert together using a torch to heat the rivets in place
Setting the second rivet
The bottom piece is the one created entierly during demonstration time, the top one was created previously
Peter Ross forging the other side of the compass
The food vendor was moved inside the blacksmith shop because of the torrential downpours
Demonstrating the use of an air hammer in blacksmithing
Yep, that little handheld type not the big monstrous forging hammer type
Most of his tools were used with a welded hand guide and no retaining ring
Here was a good example of one of his cold chisels
Using a flat hammer head bit, a retaining collar, and a vise, the air hammer can be used for easy upsetting
A clearer shot of the same
Using the air hammer as an engraver
You need to start the engraving at a steep angle
Then you can level out, and end by angling up
A dragon head he forged, much of it done using an air hammer
the head from the top
Using a torch to heat a thick metal plate for some 'power' chasing and repouse
A fancy twist done with a chisled line down each side right at the end using a guided chisel in the air hammer
Fitting his tool into a socket with a long handle to keep his hands away from the red hot metal
Chasing a line
A view of the ends of his chasing and repouse tools
I liked this tripod anvil stand, it was wicked sturdy and weighed a ton
You cant see it well in this picture but it started raining hard
People milling around where it's dry
Mark Aspery talks about heat treating a hot cut chisel
Using some casenite
Demonstrating how a properly heated hot cut can effectivly cut thick cold steel without damage to the tool
Forging an anticlastic curve for a water leaf
Very fuzzy picture of forging down the end of his water leaf
Much clearer picture of hte same
Sam with the first sword he actually finished and put a handle on
Gorgeous forged anvil with face made by Michael Saari
Another view of the anvil
Some pieces of bar punched and woven through eachother
Kicking off the auction!
Richard Spreda, who does our NEB auctions, did the one for the ACBC as well, he does a great job
A nice forged door latch slider
Sam looking over a forged jinglebell that he ended up buying
The almost finished compass that Peter Ross forged out went for a good sum
After the auction Mark Aspery did a talk on heat treating and the actual science behind it
It was very refreshing (as a bladesmith) to see a blacksmith who fully understands the physics and chemistry of heat treating
Mark talking about a TTT chart and the martensite point
A picture that didnt come out right
Late night forging with Sam
Susan getting on a chair to sledge... not a good idea, so its' a good thing she didnt do it =D
A much smarter place to sledge, cutting half way through the 1 inch square bar to get a shorter piece
Upsetting the end of a section of the bar
Tim forging some of the 1" bar
Sam and Susan upsetting and knocking out the top for a forged rose design thing
People hanging out just watching the people at work forging
The challenge... take 1" square and see if we can make 1" square from it... in the other direction !
I've never seen people stand around discussing how to hit something for so long, they needed to reheat it after eveyr other blow
Tom took charge and got out a sledge hammer to move some metal
Tom and Tim alternating blows to upset the one inch bar into something fat and short
That cube in the front is the 1" bar after a bit of forging
At this point the bar was getting shorter than it was wide, they took a steel ball and drove it into the top
A more clear picture of driving the ball into it
We had a nice depression made into the top, making kinda like an ash tray or something. They decided they wanted to weld the ball into it (see videos)
Chiseling and driving down the face of the rose
The finished rose thingy the next morning
Sam's treadle hammer
David Norrie finishing up the window insert, which sold for over 1500 in the auction to benefit the conference
A gorgeous cedar bench which Bob Menard won in the auction
I really liked this forged dragon, Peter Ross liked it too, hence giving it his choice award for the gallery pieces
This was the piece that received David Norrie's gallary reward
Something about this piece and the comment on the card made me laugh
Gorgeous old antique clock
Inside the clock
Some demo pieces up at the green coal area
Some sunday morning green coal forging
I liked this vise mount
On my way home, the Ashokan Resivior