Ashokan Blade Seminar September 18-20 2009
The Images!
Ashokan pictures in chronological order
I pulled into the Ashokan Center to find Sam already tailgating and Aldo checking out the wares
Aldo isnt called the NJ Steel Baron for no reason! He's always got a great selection with him.
Sam slaughtered many innocent squash over the weekend with his blades
It was early so a bunch of us just hung out and chatted while people arrived
Aldo and others offloading at the bunk house to claim beds
the Ashokan Center cafeteria lodge as viewed from the bunk house
Sam actually doing work! sweeping the floor of leaves
Unloading the trailer with the forging equipment, Sam found my wire brush that I had lost at the Ashokan ACBC last year in one of the buckets
Three forging setups essentially all set up
Registration table, badges waiting to be picked up
Lloyd Harner and his nifty neck knife. I forgot to get a picture of the blade itself
Deker and Erik Bose
Deker
Erik
Dan Pierson arrived sometime before supper
Kevin Cashen and Delbert Elay unpacking
Larry rode his bike out from Rhode Island
Delbert showing off some blades he made for his Leatherman Wave, unable to get one of the custom ones he did the blades for himself
This wharnclif is unique to Delbert's leatherman, the production ones have a saw blade thingy
Delbert
Dave Sylvester snuck up on Larry and quietly strangled him from behind to get his attention
Dave, Dan, and the back of Larry
Erik brought along some blades and his subhilt sword wrapped in burlap
The sword was wicked sweet
Another of Erik's blades
Dave wanted to test the effectiveness of one of Erik's choppers... Sam was handily near by
Getting ready for supper, waiting for the second bell
Supper!
Tim Zowada and Dan Maragni prepping for the first lecture of the weekend
Dan brought just a few books with him
Tim giving the opening remarks for Ashokan
The story of Tim Wright and the letter written about one of his lectures came up, the back of this DVD has a copy of the letter.
Dan giving his "Best of Category" talk on resources for the bladesmith
Bill Hoffman and some others outside getting ready for some late night forging
Dave brought some beers down from Canada
Hanging out in the atheletic field chatting and drinking
Sam gets the first forge going at the pavilion
Sam smoking everyone else out
Getting ready for some forging
Aldo making some late night sales
Sword blade picture that didnt quite come out, I believe this was Bill Hoffman's katana blade
Someone hot filing at one of the vices
Fire guud!
Sam forging out yet another giant chopping knife
Aldo forging
One of the forges
Erik trying out one of Sam's cutler's hammers
A nice little vertical propane forge. I forget who this belonged to
Breakfast saturday morning came way too soon
People shuffled in slowly for breakfast
Kevin did a great presentation on precision fitting handles
My camera must like Larry, it didnt want to focus on Kevin
Kevin's 'demo' knife that he can take on planes, no real knife, just a precision fit takedown handle
A much clearer image of the same
A slight precision recess is cut into the spacer
Trying to get a good picture still
and still...
this one focused right!
This one didnt...
Kevin talking about how to drill out your handle material for the tang and get the best fit
Some of the tools Kevin uses for a good precision fit
Tim doing a forging demo
People watching Tim forge
Kenny Rowe doing a demo on sheath making
Real men wear kilts! But lederhosen will do. Myself and Roman Landes
The wiggly bridge in the distance, the grounds of the Ashokan Campus are gorgeous
Some of L. Harner's knives on his laptop
Lunch!
Roman's personal carry utility knife
Roman starting his lecture on knife edges and steel
Unfortunately his book Messerklingen und Stahl is not yet published with an english translation
Roman talked about sharpness as an actual measurable thing, and how carbides affect the ability to reach sharpness based on edge stability in the three planes of cutting action
Bill McGrath giving a demo in using a walkingstick as an effective defensive tool in bad neighborhoods
Kenny Rowe doing some leather carving
Jim Siska making grinding look trivially easy
Delbert, Kenny, Kevin and Tim talking about the business of knifemaking
The variable speed Bader B3 that the New England Bladesmiths Guild purchased for the club's use
Delbert ready to start his Damascus forging demo
Everyone watching Delbert at work
Deker borrowed Dave's hammer to help work the steel
Delbert setting the first weld on the billet with a light hammer
Delbert worked quick but efficiently to get the billet welded up
After another long soak to get everything to the right temp, Deker helped to draw out the billet
The same but rather fuzzy
Delbert putting the billet back in for another heat
Delbert doing some drawing out on his own
Heavy forging with a heavy hammer, the weld already done, now it's time to move some metal
The billet goes back into the forge even when there's still a lot of heat left in it, moving that much metal by hand takes a lot of heat
More drawing
Sam said he wanted to pretend to be a little giant, and found a sledge hammer to use
Sam getting ready to help draw out the steel
Giving it a blow on the side to show that it's solidly welded
I missed shots of Kevin doing his heat treating demo, but here's the results.. The new 'file' test... scribe glass with the blade, you need at least RC67 to do so, so you know the blade here is hard
The two blades that Kevin heat treated. He took the larger of the two and threw it repeatedly into the ground with no tempering and only managed to ding the last millimeter off the tip after 4 or 5 hard throws
Aldo trying to smoke everyone out of the pavilion
It got quite chilly, so the fire was nice to warm the hands
BACON! Breakfast sunday morning
Roman gave a talk on knife sharpening
Delbert with some very nice damascus for sale
Knifes on display
Joe Szilaski brought some of his fantastic tomahawks
Some of the knives that Roman Landes brought with him from Germany
Tim Zowada brought straight razors and honing equipment for sale
Some of the blades that Jim Siska brougth with him
This little turtle was sunning itself on a branch under the wiggly bridge
Some of the catskill mountains surrounding the resivour
The bridge that crosses the center of the resivour
Looking out across the resivour
The gate houses on the bridge across the resivour
Great view across the resivour from on the bridge
Another of the same