Slideshow

GCBA enjoyed a beautiful day at our May 1 meeting at Buddy’s shop.

Larry House reported a successful two-day Fire in the Swamp. He and John Perilloux managed a perfectly executed iron pour on Sunday. They made several box molds and pours directly in the ground, including a large iron cross.

Our newest member, Ben Boerner, winner of the tool box raffle, came to sign up and watch some work at the forge.

Chuck Robinson demonstrated his process for fitting a handle on tapered hidden tang blades. He included the use of a 4-flute carbide reamer to shave the annealed tang as a Japanese blade smith would use his “Sen”. This is a tool used to plane the annealed steel on the blade much as a spoke shave shaves wood. In the accompanying photos you can also see the use of a silver guard and a special jig for grinding the guard to thickness. Also shown is a special tool for cutting out the slot in the handle.

Norbert Delph returned a rebuilt blower for an annex forge so we will have all forges ready to run for the next meeting.

New Business

You are reminded that our Annual Elections will be held at our next meeting, May 29. Please be prepared to make nominations for President, Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer as well as board members. It would be best to have the permission of anyone you wish to place in nomination.

Demonstrations coming up in the fall include:

• George Ohr Festival, Sat-Sun October 1st & 2nd.
• Bush Tractor Pull, Sat November 5
• 26th Annual Scottish Games and Celtic Festival, Sat-Sun November 12th & 13th

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Click any photo below to manually sequence through the gallery.
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Check out our gallery of the October Meeting where Buddy Leonard resumed training, the annex doors were finished and several members showcased their amazing art work.

See the GCBA Demo Team in action at the Centennial Celebration of Scouting in America. Several thousand scouts and their families attended and kept our demonstrators busy.

We recently added drop-down menus to all of the main menu selections on the GCBA website. Each subsection of the site is now accessible directly from the main menu. Mouse over the main menu links to see the new drop-downs.

Join us at our next meeting on Sunday, Nov 28 at Buddy Leonard’s Shop. Please bring items for Iron in the Hat and samples of your work for Show and Tell. We can all learn by sharing ideas.

We recently added a dedicated ABANA page to the GCBA website. It includes links to current ABANA News Topics and sections of the ABANA website most relevant to GCBA members. Check it out!

Update your personal calendar now with our Monthly Meeting Schedule for the first half of 2011.

Florida Artist Blacksmith Association

A number of free books related to blacksmithing and metalworking are available online and several Blacksmith Associations provide free access to online versions of their newsletters.  Steve Bloom of the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association has created an extraordinary archive of articles on blacksmithing projects and tips from association newsletters and other sources.

We have added the following new sections to the In Print section of our Links page:

• Free Online Blacksmith Association Newsletters
• Free Online Blacksmithing Books
• Free Online Blacksmithing Articles

Let us know if you discover others that we can add as well.

The Astragal Press offers books on early tools, trades and technology.  Their catalog includes over forty titles relating to Blacksmithing and Early Metalworking.

In addition there are many books on:

• Early Tools & Tool Collecting
• Woodworking
• Carriages & Sleighs
• Early Farming
• Early Trades
• Railroadiana
• Early Science & Technology
• Building Construction and Design
• Leather and Rope Working.

Do you have an idea for an article? Are you interested in or know of someone who may be interested in writing articles for the Anvil’s Ring or Hammer’s Blow? Then the ABANA Publications Committee wants to hear from you.  Our publications are the definitive journals of the craft and in order to make continuous improvements the ABANA Publications Committee is soliciting the membership for articles.

This is your chance to standout in the crowd and get published.  Even if you are not interested in writing an article yourself, you can get together with fellow smiths and work on an article as a group.

How to submit an article for publication

Here is what you need to know. First of all, make contact with the Publications Committee by using the email address provided below and let them know you are interested.

Publications Committee Email: publications@abana.org

Next select a topic, a recent personal project, an Affiliate activity, a recent workshop, a community involvement project or anything that you feel would make a great article for the Anvil’s Ring or the Hammer’s Blow.

This is your opportunity to “Get Published”

If your interest is in “How To Articles” for the Hammer’s Blow, and you have found a “new” useful tip, tool you made and want to share how it’s made, a new idea on an old technique, step by step process for forging something that is not easily understood or any other ideas you may have on something you think “should be published” in the Hammer’s Blow… then this is your opportunity to “Get Published”.

Either way, whatever your interest, an article for the Anvil’s Ring or for the Hammer’s Blow, contact the Publications Committee by using the email address provided:  publications@abana.org

You can find all the information you will need to get published at these links:

About ABANA Publications
The Anvil’s Ring
Hammer’s Blow
Writer’s Guidelines

Publication deadline schedule for 2010

ANVIL’S RING – TIMELINE – 2010

WINTER ISSUE
Copy deadline Dec 30, 2009
Publication date Mar 15

SPRING ISSUE
Copy deadline Apr 1, 2010
Publication date Jun 15

SUMMER ISSUE
Copy deadline Jul 1
Publication date Sep 15

FALL ISSUE
Copy deadline Oct 1
Publication date Dec 15

HAMMER’S BLOW – TIMELINE – 2010

WINTER ISSUE
Copy deadline Jan 31
Publication date Mar 15

SPRING ISSUE
Copy deadline Apr 28
Publication date Jun 15

SUMMER ISSUE
Copy deadline Jul 30
Publication date Sep 15

FALL ISSUE
Copy deadline Nov 3
Publication date Dec 15

What’s next?

“I submitted an Article in the past, what makes this any different?”  “What happened to my Article?  It didn’t get Published.” Some simple answers to questions about this Call for Articles:

Your ABANA Board of Directors is always looking for good articles to submit for publication. Both the Anvil’s Ring and the Hammer’s Blow print an ongoing call for your articles for publication. If you submitted an article in the past, “Thanks”, here is what makes this “Call for Articles” different. Your ABANA Board of Directors is asking for articles to be submitted directly to the Publications Committee.

The usual route for submitting an article is to the editors of the Anvil’s Ring and the Hammer’s Blow. If you submitted an article in the past that didn’t get published, pull it out of the dusty corner, polish it up and try it again by contacting the Publications Committee. The article that was submitted and didn’t get published may have needed a little help and the ABANA Board of Directors is ready willing and able to assist in developing, polishing and generally working with you to help make your article worthy of publication.

The bottom line, it’s a win-win situation, the members get to see your article, your publication improves, the editors have good content, you get published, the Board plays an active role in article review… after all it’s your publication and you can make a difference.

Oh I can hear those keyboards tapping and those shutters clicking!  Come on members… “Get Published”!

Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Rome H. Hutchings, Member Services Chair

Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon!. Sincerely,

Rome H. Hutchings, Member Services Chair

After Hurricane Gustav

GCBA holds regular meetings on the 4th Sunday of each month. (We do not meet in December due to the holidays.)

We gather at Buddy Leonard’s shop, where we feature something new from smiths with special skills. We begin gathering at 9:00 a.m., and the meeting starts at 10:00. This is a working meeting, so please bring your own hammers, tongs, gloves and safety glasses.

After the Rebuild

We encourage you to bring along an item you have made and surplus blacksmithing tools and supplies for our Iron In The Hat Auction. Items will be displayed on a table and bid on by a silent auction or raffle.

Members can bring their own lunch to eat in the shop or drive to a local restaurant for lunch of their choice.

Please plan to join us.  For more information, contact Chuck Robinson at (601) 798-0060.

Upcoming Monthly Meetings

• Sunday, April 29 (an exception to our usual 4th Sunday schedule)
• Sunday, May 27
• Sunday, June 24
• Sunday, July 22
• Sunday, August 26
• Sunday, September 23
• Sunday, October 28
• Sunday, November 25
• (No meeting in December)