February 28 Meeting Reminder

February 22, 2010

The next GCBA meeting will be held Sunday, February 28th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at Buddy Leonard’s Shop. The meeting will be a workshop so please bring your own tools (hammers, tongs, gloves and safety glasses).

Annual Dues
Annual dues are $25.00 and were due in January. Please bring a check or money order payable to “GCBA”, or cash to the meeting. Otherwise mail payment to:

Sid Gale
P.O. Box 2351
Denham Springs, LA  70727

Education Program
After conducting the business meeting, Wayne Cash will demonstrate Broom Making. When you make a fireplace set you will need to know how to make the broom. We will get to work in the back when his demonstration is finished (approximately 30 minutes).

Scholarships
In the interest of educating our members and developing our own “in house” demonstrators for future meetings, the Board of Directors has proposed an alternative to the scholarship to a blacksmithing school. Members may request reimbursement for conference fees.

The ABANA conference in Memphis, TN is 2-5 June. The Mississippi Forge Council will have a conference on Memorial Day weekend. The Alabama Forge Council will have a conference in September.  As noted below, LAMA will have a conference in March

GCBA will pay the conference fee for members to attend any one of these conferences if:

  1. You have not been the recipient of a GCBA scholarship in the past.
  2. You agree to write an article about the conference and what you learned.
  3. You will demonstrate what you learned at one of meetings in the future.

LAMA Conference
The Louisiana Artist Metal Association will be having a Blacksmith Conference featuring Brian Brazeal, March 13th and 14th. GCBA members are invited to attend. The early registration conference fee is $35.00.  Please let Sid Gale know if you are planning to attend.

Election of Officers
We will have an election of officers and Board of Directors at our May meeting. Please volunteer for positions or provide nominations for positions to our Secretary, Sid Gale.

Iron in the Hat (IH)
Please bring items for Iron in the Hat. January’s IH contributed $50.00 to the scholarship fund.

Show and Tell
Please bring items that you have made or think will be of interest to other members. There were many interesting items on the table at the last meeting. This is an opportunity to share ideas with our members.

Video Library
Blacksmith DVDs and videos are available from our library. Just make a $20 refundable deposit and check them out from Glen Wesley.

Picayune Arboretum Forge Day
Seven members of GCBA helped demonstrate in Picayune. Thank you demonstrators!

Click photo to see the GCBA Mug Shot Gallery

Mug Shots
Any members who haven’t had their picture taken yet, contact Chuck at the next meeting.

T- Shirts
Our inventory of shirts has diminished rapidly. They will be available at the meeting for purchase.

Coal
Coal is available for $35.00 per hundred pound sack.


Little Giant Power Hammer Rebuilding Seminar, March 19-21

January 10, 2010

Learn how to make your Little Giant power hammer work harder than ever.  The Anual Little Giant Rebuilding Seminar is scheduled for March 19-21 in Nebraska City, NE.

See full details in the Seminar Brochure.


The Astragal Press added to “In Print” Resources

December 21, 2009

A new In Print resource has been added to our Links page.

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


ABANA Publications – Call for Articles

November 22, 2009

Anvil’s Ring and Hammer’s Blow want your articles.
Get published!

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”.

The Anvil's RingEither 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

The Anvi's RingANVIL’S RING – TIMELINE – 2010

WINTER ISSUE
Copy deadline Dec 30
Publication date Mar 15

SPRING ISSUE
Copy deadline Apr 1
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

Hammer's BlowWINTER 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 and 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.

ABANA PublicationsThe 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 Hutchings
Rome H. Hutchings, Member Services Chair


ABANA 2010 Conference, June 2-5 at AgriCenter in Memphis

October 24, 2009

ABANA has announced that the 2010 ABANA Conference will be held June 2-5 at the AgriCenter International in Memphis, TN.

Abana Conference 2010See the following ABANA resources for updated information:

Conference Blog

Feb 25:  Call for BAM Box Tool Donations

Jan 26:  Call for 2010 Conference Gallery Submissions!

Nov 20:  Conference Workshops and Teaching Stations

Sep 24:  Conference Site set for Memphis AgriCenter International


GCBA Ranks in Top 50 Blacksmithing Sites Worldwide

October 14, 2009

Blacksmith’s Journal tracks 111 blacksmithing sites worldwide and publishes a ranked list of the Top 50 Blacksmithing Sites based on daily page views.

Since the February re-launch of our website, GCBA online visits have steadily climbed past 40,000 and GCBA now consistently ranks as one of the top visited blacksmithing websites in the world.  On any given day our ranking ranges between #30 and #45, and continues to climb.  You can check GCBA’s current ranking by clicking this icon located at the bottom of the right column of each page.



Viewing GCBA Photo Galleries Now Easier

October 14, 2009

It’s now much easier to navigate through GCBA photo galleries.  The GCBA website is built upon the WordPress blog platform which recently added new functionality to make it easier to sequence through photos in a gallery.

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For example, Chuck Robinson recently published a photo documentary of the process of Al-Bronze Casting of a Knife Handle.  If you click any image in that gallery,

  • You will notice that immediately below the current image are thumbnails (miniatures) of the previous and next images in the gallery.  Simply click the thumbnail images to navigate forward or backward through the photo gallery.
  • You can easily return to the related gallery page by clicking on the gallery name link above the current photo.
  • Click the current image to view it in its full original resolution.

Check it out.  This will make browsing GCBA galleries much easier.

(Many thanks to Dave at Vault9 for responding to GCBA’s request to expedite this new functionality.)


GCBA Meeting Schedule

February 16, 2009
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After Hurricane Gustav

GCBA holds regular monthly meetings 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.

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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 kind of silent auction or raffle. If you are interested in an item you can purchase a ticket for $1.00. You can buy as many tickets as you like and place them in the adjacent cup. After lunch the tickets will be dumped in the hat and one ticket selected which wins the item. The more tickets you buy the better chance of winning the item.

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, March 28
    • Sunday, April 25
    • Sunday, May 23
    • Sunday, June 27
    • Sunday, July 25
    • Sunday, August 22
    • Sunday, September 26
    • Sunday, October 24
    • Sunday November 28