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Blacksmith Discussions
featuring
Dave Koenig, Richard Boswell, Bob Nichols
Kleb Woods Nature Center near Tomball
The August meeting will be held indoors and will offer HABA members and members of the public to learn more about the craft of forging ferrous , blacksmithing. There will be three speakers. Download a brochure by clicking Blacksmith Discussions
Dave Koenig will lead off with a talk he has given to three groups since the first of the year titled A Story of the Smith and Forging. The focus of his talk is on the very beginnings of the craft, how it started and the role of the smith in antiquity.
Richard Boswell will follow with a talk that will bring the blacksmithing craft from the Middle East to the U. S. A. Richard's presentation will be a condensed class he presented to the American Society of Metallurgists last year.
Bob Nichols is preparing two new talks on two subjects that smiths cannot seem to get enough information, Wootz steel, the original Damascus and a bit of science about Heat Treating Ferrous Metals. Bob's talks will greatly augment and compliment the previous presentations.
Each talk will allow plenty of time for discussion and will almost certainly guarantee that everyone will leave Kleb Woods with a new appreciation of the blacksmithing craft. This day will not be spent on 'How To' forging processes but on broadening our appreciation of the origins, development and impact of the person and the craft on world cultures.
The program will be held in the excellent, in-doors, air-conditioned conference center at the Kleb Woods Nature Center near Tomball.
Click to our web page Blacksmith Talk-In for more info.
HABA Forge Welding Workshop was June 20 at Bucksnort
For June we are going to gather at Tee Hines' Bucksnort Forge shop in Magnolia to try our hand at forge welding. Tee will be demonstrating the basic techniques associated with forge welding along with showing us several types of welds. The different parts of the welding process like upsetting, making a scarf, flux and so on will be discussed.This is a hands-on work shop with the goal of teaching you the basics of forge welding. Hopefully you will leave this meeting with enough knowledge to practice at home and expand your skills. If you practice you will get better. Being able to forge weld greatly increases the scope of forging projects you can manage.
One project we will try to complete is a Fire Place Poker forged from 3/8” square bar with a faggot weld end. If you have another project you would rather try, have at it!
The website for the meeting is Forge Welding with Tee.
Bring your Coal Forge & fuel to this meeting!
Photos are provided at our Flick page collection at Forge Welding Demo .
HABA Divide and Caliper Workship was May 16 at Bucksnort
At Oldenburg, Bob Alexander was selling Tom Clark design double calipers along with the tongs, etc from Ozark School of Blacksmithing, and most were sold as soon as the van doors were open! Since Bob Hensley could not get a set he thought "Hey, you are a supposedly toolmaking blacksmith, make your own!".
Someone else from the group standing there said it might make a good demo project.So, Bob went into his shop and made a set of double calipers, and a set of dividers as a side project, just to see if he could.
He will help us all to make these at Tee Hines' shop in Magnoila.
More details are on our web page Divide and Caliper .
Photos for the day include the Demo, Hammer-In, Show and Tell, and a leaf demo by Tee Hines. They are posted on our Flickr page at Divide, Caliper, and Measure.
HABA Blacksmith Round Up was April 3-5
Our HABA Blacksmith Round Up in Oldenburg was first weekend of April featuring Bob Alexander from Desoto, Missouri as our day long demonstrator on Saturday April 4, 2009! Our guests and audience were treated to sit on our new 4 piece bleacher stands!Bob demoed all day Saturday and then Sunday until noon. Saturday's projects were two candleholders featuring forge welding methods in the colonial style. The day concluded with other items sucsh a pineapple twisting, and a corkscrew bottle opener. Sunday featured the processes for making two different flowers using special tooling and gas welding.
We had a spirited Auction on Saturday that featured many items worthy of your attention including the two candle holders that Bob demoed. Also included were new tools and books, used tools, materials, and the wonderful custom pieces made by talented smiths. This is always a unique opportunity to acquire and donate special and unique tools and art. So for next time forge or donate something special you have made or collected, or shop at our Sponsors Page and bring a cool tool or item to donate!
Our web page with much more information is at Blacksmith Round Up 2009
Photos from the event are posted on our Flickr site Collection at Round Up 2009 .
Did you finish your chain maille patch we started last summer at Kleb farm? Please bring your patches and Richard Myer will be putting them together for our new banner!
Kleb Barn Board Nail Up was March 7
The March HABA meeting wasat Kleb Nature Center. It is officially located at 20301 Mueschke Road, Tomball,TX but the parking lot and Nature Center are off of Draper Road. Just follow the County, Precinct 3 signs from Mueschke Road.
The objective of the March meeting is to use the recovered boards to enclose as much of the barn as possible starting from the wide open north gabled end and working around to the East side.
While some people are nailing up boards, others will continue to make nails.
Dave Koenig has provided a flyer handout you may download for more details. Please click Kleb Nailing Boards.
Photos of the day are posted on our Flickr page Kleb Nail Up .
Texas Independence Day Weekend at Barrington Farms Feb 28-March 1
HABA will be demonstrating at the Washington-on-the-Brazos Barrington Living History Farm for Texas Independence Day on February 28 and March 1. Les Cook and Dave Koenig are arranging our demonstrators. Please come out to visit and bring the family for the festivities. See their web site where you are invited to...
Join us at the "Birthplace of Texas" and celebrate 173 years of Texas independence. We will honor the 59 men who met here in March to declare Texas a free and independent nation. Historical re-enactors, skilled craftsmen and period musicians transport visitors back to a time when Texas was a struggling young nation throughout the weekend celebration. A special ceremony will be held Sunday afternoon honoring Texas' past and present ending with a Texas sized birthday cake. Tour fees will be waived on this special weekend so all Texans can learn about our common heritage.
Photos from the windy and chilled weekend are on our Flickr page HABA celebrates at Barrington Farm. Dave Koenig and Les Cook were joined by Tee Hines, Richard Boswell, Russell Parrish, and Bob Hensley to demonstrate to the public for the Independence weekend where it all began.
Bowl Making Workshop was February 21 at Tudor Forge
This February we featured bowls and vessel making at Tudor Forge with Dave Koenig at his shop in Magnolia to support the Empty Bowls Effort. This will be similar to our workshop demo last year on vessel making where the bowls were larger in diameter than the year before. Except......this year we will work with copper plate!More details are on our web page Copper Bowl Making. Photos are placed on our FLICKR collection page Bowling in Copper.
Please join local artists and crafts people for Houston’s Fifth Annual Empty Bowls Event March 21, 2008
Empty Bowls Houston is a grassroots effort by artists and craftspeople across the country to feed the hungry in their communities. The Houston Empty Bowls Committee, comprising the craft and art community, Houston Food Bank, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Lawndale Art Center, and Whole Foods Market are seeking contributions of handmade bowls and artworks from local artists and craftspeople.
Restoration of the Elissa in 1980 added to our History page
Our Historical Blacksmithing in Texas page has been updated with a three part article published in the ABANA Anvils Ring in 1985 and 1986, written by Joe Pehoski, Doug McLean, and George Holliday. These articles describe the vessel history and the work they provided in the original restoration of hardware on the historical sailing ship Elissa in 1980, now a popular tourist destination in Galveston. The Elissa is a wrought iron barque, with three masts built in 1877 at an Aberdeen shipyard.
Pearl Fincher Museum Fund Raising Gala Auction is March 28
Last year The Pearl Fincher Museum in Spring hosted the Metal Worked show featuring many great examples of HABA and Balcones smith's work. Nearly 6000 visitors toured our exhibit!
Their second Annual fund raising gala is scheduled for March 28, and HABA members are invited to submit items they have made or collected to benefit the museum. We have already received two outstanding items from artists who were exhibited in the show and we are hoping you will support this event with more submissions.
A donation form is available from the museum for your tax deductible contribution. Mr. Calvin Cobb is CEO of the museum, and he serves on our HABA Advisory Committee. He sent this note to me (your webfeller) to share with you:
"We had 9478 visitors (to the museum this first year) and I thought you would be interested to know 5900 of them visited your Metal Worked exhibition.
We are preparing for our 2009 Gala on March 28 and it is very exciting. We are working on the auction and I wanted to ask if the blacksmith group would consider donating something wonderful to be auctioned. Everyone I know who saw Metal Worked was so impressed with the exhibition I am sure they would like a chance to own a piece of blacksmith original art.
On the auction items, we have a donation form that records all of the information and the donor sets the value for the gift. We list the value with the item so bidders have some guidance on bidding.
All of the items from your group that were in the show were great so I am confident the artistic talents and visions of the group will provide items that our bidders would find most attractive. I don't have a good feel for the value range of interest but I would think somewhere in the $400 to $2000 range would make sense. How does that feel to you? My son made a very artsy wooden box for last year's auction and it sold for around $400. He had sold a few of them in that same range before. Unfortunately, of the items we sold last year, none were in the unique category of original blacksmith art.
We will need a description (in very general terms) and the filled-out donor form as soon as we can get them. However, for really good stuff, we can wait until the first of March or even later. Good stuff takes precedence over being fast with the forms!
Does this answer your questions? If not, let me know what other information I can provide."
Annual Knife Making Work Shop and Auction was January 17
It is a new year, so it must be time to make a new knife at our Annual Knife Workshop, and to donate and bid at our Annual Fund Raising Auction. This year's workshop was held on Saturday January 17 will again featured Cowboy Szymanski of Phenix Knives at his shop in Bellville, Texas.
This year we will revisit the 2006 Spike Knife with a few new features... a Fork! Our web page is at HABA Spike Knife and Fork for more information and links.
Photos from the demo and auction are posted on our Flickr Collection page for January 2009 Demo. This is the demo fork that Cowboy made (click to enlarge).
The local newsapaper had a very nice feature on the meeting prepared by David Emswiller for their January 22 edition, and a pdf of the article can be read in this scanned copy of The Bellville Times !
HABA Article Scanner Project
Bob Hensley, our scanner person of projects and interesting items from newsletters and magazines, is looking for old copies of the "Anvil's Ring", especially early issues from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. These items would be scanned for projects and other info useful to our members, and would then be cheerfully returned to the original owner.
Or send him a scanned article (pdf) to use!
Bob has some of these issues scanned already, but there are articles that continue into issues he doesn't have access to. This information will become available to members in the future, as additional time is available for him to ready them for access thru our website.
Please email bhensley@mctitle.com with dates or volume and issue numbers of any issues you may have that you will let us share with the group, and he will make arrangements to get them from you and scan and return them in a timely manner. PLEASE mention HABA ARCHIVES in the subject line, since he gets so much spam that he sometimes miss things that don't jump out at him.
Thanks for your help!
HABA Happy Hammer Holiday Moves into 2009
HABA Members have again been blessed with another great year of demonstrations and activity that gives us an exciting start towards another New Year.
Once again as this year packs up, we can step back and see it has been busy, fun, and full of opportunity. For this we are grateful to the many HABA volunteers and participants who have kept the flag held high. Now is a good time to look over the pages of this website you may not have visited lately. Now is also a good time to suggest what you would like to see HABA do in 2009. We are laying out plans now.
In January we will have the Big Annual Auction and Knifemaking Workshop with Cowboy. Gather up tools and stuff, and make something special that can be donated. Or shop at our Sponsors and bring a cool tool to donate!
As you do the seasonal shopping, please give a look at our HABA Sponsors page and tell them you saw their link here and appreciate their donated support for our Auctions.
Come back often this month as the new web pages will become active and the Calendar updated.
We've had a really good year. Let's do it again. Until then, have a Safe and Joyful Holiday Season!
Internet Technology for the Blacksmith
Several websites have been brought to our attention that push the educational frontier further along by bringing it closer and within reach of many who want to learn the skillls and techniques we admire and seek. This HABA website for instance, is simple, almost primitive by today's standards, but is still useful for our Membership. As our computers continue their evolutionary path of increased performance, we can find content that was once not so easy to view. Our Flickr photo site is an example. Another popular technology being deployed is You Tube where we can find educational videos at no cost such as the ones listed below submitted by California Blacksmith Mark Asperry as part of his Smithing School. Once you get there in You Tube, many similar video choices will be offered. And you can search for more on any topic you choose.
- Blacksmithing Forge-welding a branch
- Blacksmithing power hammer making closed die ball tool
- The Forged Acanthus Leaf
Several more have been suggested as worth your attention...
HABA Training Progression
One of the most important tools provided by HABA to the Membership is education, and this is offered in an organized structure within the HABA Training Progression. Steve Arial has volunteered to Chair the committee overseeing this program and welcomes your participation. The document has been revised to print easily and is presently in review for updating by the HABA Board. You may download the current Draft Version and use this to guide your activities and set your goals for the next year. Select either TP-Word or TP-pdf for downloading.
The Progression is defined as four levels commonly recognized within the art:
- I. Introduction
- II. Basic
- III. Intermediate
- IV. Advanced
At the conclusion of each phase is a signature block for a designated HABA reviewer and date. When the Progression is complete, the HABA President will sign and date the document, and arrange for appropriate recognition of the Member.
HABA Calendar for 2009 is Online SOON
It's the annual clean-up and revise season here in the web shop. If something seems put away too good please let your web feller know. Last year's meeting schedule and topics have been archived on our HABA 2008 Calendar page. The 2009 meeting schedule and topics will be announced soon on our HABA 2009 Calendar page which will be updated as often as possible. We hope you can attend and contribute to each meeting demonstration.
This front page of meetings announcement was trimmed back in December, and the complete listing for all of 2008 is still available at HABA 2008. Each of these sites contain links to each summary, photos, and announcement page we published for your convenience.
Membership
Please Join and be a part of HABA today to receive the current Newsletter ! Contact Ed Malmgren for the latest information. To receive your Family Membership Card or to update your records please send Ed an email with a Membership Application.
Annual Memberships are due at start of the year! Click Family Membership Form to download a pdf of the application.
Family Membership for 2008 are still only $20. Special offers are available for the 3 and 5 year Memberships. See the Membership page and ask Ed about these for 2008!
Thanks for your continued support!
HABA Events Calendar for 2009
Please visit our Calendar for details.
Notes about this Website This website is Under Development and will continue to evolve for HABA Members.
The use any of the material from this site is at your own risk. All persons associated with this material disclaim any responsibility or liability for damages or injuries resulting from the use or application of this information. They assume no responsibility or liability for the accuracy, fitness, proper design, safety or safe use of any information presented here.
The webmaker's speller-checker does not always work and your tolerance for those items not caught and fixed has been and will continue to be appreciated!
Please send all feedback/correction/omission/suggestions to your webfeller, Richard Boswell .
Enjoy!
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Last updates were on June 28, 2009
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