Show and tell:
Photos: Charlie Bateman brought photos from the Fall Conference and Tunnel Mill so some of us could see some of what we missed.
Fire basket, spit, and book on swordmaking Brent Wold
November 2001 Vol 3 Issue 11
Here we are again. Pull up a chair, get your
coffee, reading glasses, and writing tools. It
is time to discuss the news. The Guild
currently has 312 members. Your renewal
date is on the mailing label as 20XX.Q
(year.quarter).
Gene Olson, editor
******
Attention Please!
If your label says. 2001.4 your membership
is up for renewal. Please send your $30
dues to:
The Guild of Metalsmiths
PO Box 11423
St. Paul MN 55111
How to Join
Send $30 dues with your name, address,
(and if you would) phone numbers -home -shop -fax, email address, web page, a
statement of interests/services up to 254
characters (letters and spaces) to the above
address.(Please indicate if you want to be
listed in our membership directory and
which items you want listed)
Gene Olson, editor
Call for Metalsmith Articles
Metalsmith Back Issue Service
COAL specs
meeting notes
Video Librarian Needed
The Guild Website
Directory updates
Letters
Want Ads
Next Meeting
Workshops
Please!
---Metalsmith Back Issue Service---
Back issues of The Metalsmith are available
to Guild members for only $3.00 each,
postage included.
Use your most recent copy of the
Metalsmith's How-to index to pick out the
topics that interest you most. Then, if you
don't already have those Metalsmiths in your
collection, get them from the Guild of
Metalsmiths Back Issue Service!
To order, write the Volume and Issue
number(s) on a slip of paper along with your
mailing address.
Include a check for $3.00 for each issue made
out to Guild of Metalsmiths. Send it to:
Pete Stanaitis
2476 10th Ave.
Baldwin, WI. 54002
If you have any questions about the service ,
contact Pete at 715-698-2895 or email me at:
spaco@Baldwin-telecom.net
Moisture 2.74%
Ash 4.88%
Volaitile Matter 17.74%
Fixed Carbon 74.64%
Sulfur .061%
BTU/lb 14,594
If this looks like Greek to you, help is on
the way. Green Bay Brown tells us he is
writing an article for the Spring Metalsmith
which will explain all this.
Way to go Dave.
submitted by Gene Olson
Dave Olin's place in Mendota.
Meeting called to order.
Committee reports:
Financial: 26,000 in treasury, fall
conference a success, more attendees than
ever, great auction and raffle even though
they didn't set any new records.
Education: all beginning classes filled.
Program: February meeting will be at
Arms and Armor on Stinson Blvd. in
Minneapolis.
Publicity: foum published, Copies of the
directory handed out for final proof.
There was some discussion about
alternative venues for classes when the
School of Horseshoeing stops making it's
space available. The board has been
working on the Nowthen Threshing Show
shop as a site on the north side. Several
members expressed concern over the Guild
putting money into one threshing show
when the others furnished their sites and
paid for the equipment at no cost to the
Guild. The fact that we will have 5 forging
stations there so classes will be possible was
one reason listed. It was pointed out that
this is a long drive for most members, over
10 miles further than the School of
Horseshoing. It was pointed out that we are
looking for additional sites, closer in to the
Twin Cities and also on the South side.
.
Evenings Program:
Dave and Dave and the programmer from
the UofMn that wrote controller, showed off
the reconditioned welding/positioning robot
they had put to work making blanks for
forged baskets.
Show and tell:
Photos: Charlie Bateman brought photos
from the Fall Conference and Tunnel Mill
so some of us could see some of what we
missed.
Fire basket, spit, and book on
swordmaking Brent Wold
Simple copper plating system - Peter Bliss
showed us some pieces he had forged and
then plated using a system he found on the
internet. Regular plating shops use cyanide
baths to plate copper (this keeps the poison
in the pot, it doesn't give off poison gas).
The system Peter found uses acids available
in grocery and hardware stores, a six or
twelve volt battery and matching light bulb,
copper wire and a nonconductive pan.
Proper cleaning of the parts is imperative in
any plating process. It takes about an hour
to plate something, the liquid chemicals
used can be easily disposed of, but the
process does give off deadly Chlorine gas.
If you wish to know more about this process
call or write Peter.
wood fired pots from Tunnel Mill firing -
John Adams
Books for the Library, Sarah Delaney
Sarah brought a box of books on smithing
and art and donated them to the Guild for
the lending library. We will be setting up a
system to keep track of them, they will be
brought out at meetings and checked out
from meeting to meeting.
Video Librarian
return to index
Help Needed
We need a volunteer to take over the
Guild's video Library. Fred McCluskey,
who has got the whole thing organized now,
all records up to date and all, is moving. He
will be losing the office where he kept the
tapes. Contact Fred or Dave Fetrel.
If any of you have been trying to find
current info from the Guild website you may
have noticed that it suddenly jumped back
to Last April.
This was due to a system crash and restore
which left me without a key to get in fix it.
Luckily, this happened even as I was
moving the whole site to another local ISP,
Frostbit.com in Hopkins. Mtn, the old ISP
had failed to properly enter us into their
bookkeeping system and when they sold off
their internet services the new ISP didn't
know we were a customer. (This helps to
explain the lack of service, my user name
was listed under the MN Genealogical
Society) The website was running on the
computer, and the techs new about it but
accounting didn't and accounting had the
keys to the user access.
As a result, we never got billed, The
Genealogical Society did at a wrong address
even for them so of course they didn't pay,
and the dialup acct lapsed. And then the
system crashed while I was trying to change
our address to frostbit. The techs moved the
site to a new server, but without a new key
from accting I couldn't get in, and
accounting kept figuring I was really some
sort of weirdo crank caller to be
complaining about service when I wasn't
even a customer.
By the time this newsletter reaches you,
Internic should have updated all it's
"directory databases" and
www.metalsmith.org will take you to the
new site.
Which now has a number
http://208.132.189.220/
which the internet machinery should be
connecting to our name even as I write,
correcting our name in that great internet
phone book in the sky to the above number.
Dale Ubelhoer, the owner of
FROSTBIT.COM, volunteered to host our
site as a public service, for which we offer our
thanks.
With Dale's help we hope to add some extra
services to the site. Perhaps a members email
forum.
Dale offers metro area dialup service as well
as internet hosting. Dale's phone is 952-933-5279 and his email is
dale.ubelhoer@FROSTBIT.COM if you have
any questions about getting on line in the
metro area or setting up a web site.
wearing my Webfumbler hat
Gene
Bye the way:
Due to the fact that we now have a member in
Scotland, copies of the forum are posted to the
website to save foreign postage.
Http://www.metalsmith.org/pub/forum
The New Directories are at the printers and
should be finished soon. The changes listed
below are included.
.A hearty welcome to our New Members:
HEINRICH, KEVIN
NORDSTROM, WARREN M "SKIP"
Statement of Interests: Beginner- Interested
in knives, tools and other period stuff.
******Hi there
GENE,
I would like to thank everyone at the <
MADNESS> for the great card and all the
kind thoughts for me. I went to my first
madness in 1989 and had only missed 2 in
the following years. .I miss all my friends
and I hope I can change that in the future.
I hope this next week I'm going to pick up
a hammer again. When I do its going to be
one of Ollies that I have saved for
something special, what more than getting
back to the forge and anvil .hope to see
everyone at the spring conference.
your friend
BIG ROD
******
The Adventures of Al the Intrepid
(for those of you who don't already know:
Illustrious Al Olson, who lead the Fall
Conference this year went south for the
winter, waaaaaay south, McMurdo Station,
Antarctica. Here are some notes from way
down down under. )
If you want to write him back or have a
question for him his email is:
alan_olson@hotmail.com
If you aren't on line you can probably talk
the local library into helping you with this.
Subject: conference postmortem
hey yall,
so what became of the meeting? i wouldn't
mind hearing the skinny. it took a long time
to get to mcmurdo but i've been here and on
the job for a few days. our transport kept
having mechanical difficulties, which meant
turning around. 5 days and 6 tryies later, i
got here from christchurch, NZ. this sure
aint kansas, but i like it so far. take care.
al
Subject: day off in mcmurdo
hey guys, today is my first weekend, which
are sundays. went out drinking last night.
there are two bars in town...smoking and non.
kind of reminded me of being 18 again, away
from home, at school for the first time.
drunkeness, stupidness, boy/girl chasing, kind
of pathetic actually. so i didn't get very carried
away, aint midlife grand. my friend robin and
i hiked up observation hill which overlooks
town and has a great view. about a 45 minute
trip up. the weather was really nice so we
could see for a hundred miles i bet. the
opposite side of the bay is like 60 miles away
and is snow covered mountains. it doesn't
really look that far away. really gives you a
new sensation of isolation. there's a small kiwi
(new zealand) base on the other side of the
hill. we can go there to their little store and on
thursday nights we are invited to their bar.
there's mount eurobus (sp) in the distance
which is a live volcano that smolders. can't
see it from town though. aside from that
there's snow covered land or ice as far as you
can see. will be interesting when midsummer
comes. the town resembles what you might
think of a mining town on a hillside. not
pretty, but adequate. stuff stored in containers
in rows all over the place, huge fuel tanks,
antenna farm up the hill, pole barns, quanset
huts, firestation, dorms, galley, science center,
helo pad, machinery moving around, one of
the runways 3 miles out on the ice. only a
couple days of blowing so far, otherwise it's
like beautiful midwest winter wearther, above
zero. the day we landed here it was beatiful
earlier in the day. but when we landed the
was a ground blizzard and there was
questioning why the flight crew landed
anyway. didn't hear what became of that.
but, they were considering leaving our gear
on the plane and taking it back to NZ
because the plane was being blown across
the ice runway. they had to get fuel in it
right away to help weigh it down. they're
c141's, not exactly small transports. i
watched it take off from up in town, the
visibility was great above maybe 10 feet.
the only way in or out of this place just
flew away. i've been learning town, doing
handymanish type stuff (furnaces, galley
equip, tools, appliances) meeting a bunch
of people, getting to know the system. it
feels good here. some people have been
doing this for years. when i'm outside and
look around, i can't help but feel luckier
than hell. you should see the cod that are in
an aquairum. 4 feet long easy and the girth
of a dinner plate. feed you for 2 weeks. i
met a diver who fishes for research. so
many different and interesting people.
trades, contruction, scientists, medical,
some military, communications, computer
nerds, admin, cargo, etc. there's like 800
plus here now and should grow to around
1100 people. my roomate is a young guy
who works in the galley. good guy, doesn't
snore, easy to get along with. when i
arrived in LA and ice people started to
collect together at the NZ gate, i was afraid
they were all going to be young, tree
hugging, dredlock hair, extremist frea
al
Subject: laundry night
hi yall,
waiting for the clothes to dry.....it's like
midnight and the computers aren't so slow
right now, so i'll yak for a bit. tomorrow is
our halloween party in town. i managed to
make myself a dagger and sword of wood
and scavenged some clothes and an eye
patch to be a pirate. holidays are little more
sacred here, what else do we have to look
forward to. last weekend i did my snow
school/happy camper school for 2 days and
a night. then sea ice school on monday.
now this exceded my previous MN winter
camping experiences. at least in MN you
can chop wood and make a fire. we had
little backpacking stoves to boil water for
drinks and dinner in a bag. other than that it
was a matter of moving around to stay
warm. we figured it was around 10-20
below 0 (without windchill). i got a mild
sun burn on my face. it was kind of a
survival training class out on the ross ice
shelf. we cut snow blocks and built walls to
block the wind for a couple small tents. we
pitched a "scott tent" which looks like a
sharp pyramid and apparently is the same
style that scott the british explorer used
almost a hundred years ago. we also made
a "snow cave." the cave was made by piling
up 10 big duffle bags, covering them with a
tarp, then piling and tamping snow on it
until there's a good 3 feet of thickness. then you burrow in low and have someone pull
out the bags. then you cut the entrance on
the opposite side, down deep like a sink
trap while the inside person digs to meet in
the middle. after it's all cleaned out, you
plug up the first hole. that's where i slept
with a couple others. you need a lot of time
to make these, i don't see it happening
again...soon. the sun doesn't go down now
so i couldn't tell what time it was in the
cave. but the light that filters through the
snow is a nice blue. in "the morning" the
ceiling has ice feathers hanging above your
head from breath. the sea ice thing was
meant to educate us on ice crack evaluation.
so we know if it's safe to drive a vehicle
across it. the instructor couldn't find any
cracks, so we went to some cool little ice
caves in a nearby glacier. it's still a little
early for the ice break up. i have talked to
people who have seen some seals. where
there are seals, there are cracks. our current
runway is on the ice, but later they will
switch to one on the ice shelf which is
permanent. we are actually on an island, but
you wouldn't know it to look around. there
have been some nice visibility days to ponder
the royal society mountains and mt
discovery, across the mcmurdo sound. i
finally got my directions sussed out after
studying a map for a while. work is work, fix
stuff, periodic maintenance and cleaning. i
fixed one of the fuel station pumps this week
and the crane used in the shop that repairs all
of the big and huge vehicles around town. it's
cool to fix something you've never seen
before. but the spare parts/materials/tool
situation is pretty bad. that's my frustration.
nothing like knowing what you need and not
being able to find it. home depot is lookin
pretty good right now. oh,
al olson
******
Al also wrote and asked for info on building
a gas forge. I guess he was going into
withdrawal. <grin>
ed.
******
Hi Everyone!
I don't know if this is in time to make the
November forum or not. I had several people
at Tunnel Mill ask me to get them cans of the
paste wax I had with me. It's Howard Citrus-Shield, a very nice orange smelling wax. It's a
carnuba wax (whatever that is) mixed with
orange oil. It smells and feels good. There's
two problems. I don't remember who
wanted cans of it, and the stuff is pricey.
$11.50 for a can including tax. I don't know
what postage will be. If anyone is interested
they can get a hold of me and I'll try to help
them out.
Nathan Robertson
Jackpine Forge
52765 Robertson Road
Max, MN 56659
(218) 659-4590
jpine@paulbunyan.net
******
Due to the transient nature of Items for sale, All want ads are listed on the exchange page.
******
Where: CSPS Hall
385 Michigan St.
St. Paul, MN
What: Election of Officers
President
Vice President
Treasurer
3 Board members
Annual Banquet
Awards Presentation
Show and tell table
This is your chance to help lead the Guild through the upcoming relocation as we search for, find and equip
alternative classroom spaces. Some people have expressed strong opinions about this; if you care enough, run for office.
Open Forge Workshops
return to index
Two Days
November 17th, 2001
December 22nd , 2001
sign up for either
or both
Minn School of Horseshoeing
Ramsey MN
Instructor: Pete Stanaitis Phone: 715-698-2895
2476 10th Ave. email: spaco@Baldwin-telecom.net
Baldwin, Wi. 54002
Cost: $15 per session
Class size: 8
Description: An open Forge is an opportunity for those without a place to work. Bring your own project or Pete will
demonstrate a form or two for those who just want some forge time.
You need to bring: Safety Equipment: safety glasses & ear plugs/protectors are mandatory, other safety equipment may
include: gloves, apron, cotton clothing, leather shoes. Bring your favorite bucket of tools.
Open Forge
Mail to: Pete Stanaitis, 2476 10th Ave., Baldwin, Wi. 54002
Phone: 715-698-2895 email: spaco@Baldwin-telecom.net
Circle Your Choice(s)
November 17th December 22nd Total due
$15.00 $15.00 $__________
Check payable to: The Guild of Metalsmiths
Name:____________________________________
Address:__________________________________
City:__________________State:______ZIP:_____
Phone: ______________________