Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association

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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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Watch our GCBA demonstrators do their magic at the recent 25th Scottish Highland Games & Celtic Music Festival, including medieval costumes, jousting, sword fights and a dog show.

Check out our gallery of the October 2012 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 Saturday, January 25 at The Crosby Aboretum. 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 2013.

Did you know that you have access to online blacksmithing publications that can be downloaded free and printed from your computer?

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.

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