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February 2002     Vol 4 Issue 2

Please!

Get involved.

Minutes for Board Meeting for

The Guild of Metalsmiths

held January 9, 2002
Meeting Called to order at 7:20 PM By President David Feterl
A Welcome was given to new (old) Board Members Bob Johnson, Myron Hanson, and the old New Recording Vice President, Davie Mariette
Treasurers Report was given by Mike Frattalone: $22,174 dollars in the bank. Mike Noted that this was $4933 more than last year at this time. The Guild now has 324 members. Mike passed out financial Statement from last year, and things are looking good.
Committee Reports:
Education: Basics Classes are up and running. The Beyond the Basics classes will be held January 26th and 27th. We Have a new Video Librarian and he is Rick Herman of Rosemount. The committee is looking for advanced stuff for classes. David Mariette proposed a Bronze pour for some time in the future.
Program Committee: Meeting to have been held at Myron's 1/10/2002. Bob Beck will have talked about a leather logo demonstration. They will be discussing and perhaps deciding on candidates for presenters for the fall conference. This will be the twenty-fifth conference. April meeting site has not yet been chosen, and the ring project has been temporarily stalled.

Gene Olson proposed an Altoid Box contest in which the participant makes a original repousse' design cover for the box. Gene motioned for $75 dollars for prizes. After discussion it was amended to $150 and passed.

David Mariette volunteered to coordinate raffle stuff for the Fall Conference.

Discussion was held on 25 yearcelebration concerning a catered dinner on a regular meeting night. More details to come.

Publicity Committee: The Forum is out. And there are also some changes to the web site in the form of an online informational exchange called, "The Bellows." Similar to The Forge on the ABANA Site.

ABANA Rep: ABANA Rep is recruiting interested persons to participate in the planning and the execution of the opening ceremony at the 2002 Conference in LaCrosse. A meeting scheduled for 1/17/2002 at Myron Hanson's for all interested. Also, it was noted by the rep that ABANA has no budget for this and a proposal came from David Mariette to allocate some funds for doing this. The proposal was for 750.00 dollars. After lengthy discussion and several questions being asked, such as, why are we giving 750 dollars to ABANA for their Conference, the motion passed.

A solid tangible answer was not given to this question, but the justification went something like this. 1. It is unlikely that we will see any time in the near future a conference by ABANA so close to home. 2. Though we are not actually hosting the event we do have the opportunity to have a very real presence in the event through producing a rousing opening ceremony. 3. Also it was noted that the attempt will be made to get matching funds from ABANA for this. 4. It just seemed like the right thing to do as long as we had funds available.

Such an expenditure is not unprecedented in the Guild of Metalsmiths. Five years ago a grant was given to Dan Nauman for the PBS production of The Story of Cyril Colnik. All in all it is an important but indirect approach to the promotion of Blacksmithing education. This is what our organization is all about.

501c-3: The Application has been filed anticipating that it will take two to four months to receive a determination from the IRS. If it is a go There will be some subsequent fillings with the State of Minnesota, and they will be prepared at that time. Mike showed us a copy of the presentation that was filed. It was almost half an inch of forms and supporting documents. A suggestion was made to visit the offices of the law firm of Leonard, Street, and Deinard, and thank them properly, and Mary Probst, the attorney they assigned to our case, specifically. This was a lot of work to do on a "pro bono" (working for free) basis.

New Business:
Grant Stuff: There was general discussion about a allowing a grant that would bring in a presenter that would put on a class for six or seven of our more advanced and active instructors, thus, allowing us to use them as instructors on this subject matter in subsequent workshops. This was approved in principal as a logical extension of our train the trainers classes. We await specific proposals from our members about subjects they want to see taught and instructors we ought to consider.

Publication usage: It was duly notedthat the membership would like to see a bit less ABANA Promotional material, and more of our own original material in the METALSMITH. David Mariette who serves on the editorial board noted we are always seeking articles from our group for the METALSMITH. It was also noted that significant improvements have been made in the quality of the publication ie. quality of pictures and the like. With better graphics it is hoped that more people will be willing to show their work and to write a little article about it.

New Board meeting site: Discussion was held as to where the board will meet after May of this year because Bob and Mary Fredell will be moving to the lake on a permanent basis. More information to come. No specific site was yet determined.

Meeting was adjourned at about 9:30 PM

Respectfully Submitted,

David Mariette
Recording Vice President, Guild Of Metalsmiths

• an opportunity to learn something new and show off your skill
• a metal project that is accessible to just about everyone
• no power hammers, anvils, etc. required

Directory Updates:

We left space. Get out your

pen.


New Members:

Golden, Jan
Interests: Metal, wood, and stone sculpture.

Welcome Back

Fischer, Mike
Address Changes:
Angell, Gene
13606 254^th Ave SE
Johnson, Keith. R.
9179 Beltrami Line Rd SW

******Recently the Boy Scouts modified the Metalworking Merit Badge to include blacksmithing skills as one of the options to earn the merit badge.
On the web is a site called:
www.meritbadge.com/bsa/mb/074.htm that lists references to use for learning about the merit badge. On that page, they have posted a link to our GoM website as a resource.
I am currently registered as a merit badge counsellor for Metalworking, and I was wondering if you could put a reference somewhere on our web page mentioning this merit badge and perhaps listing my name as someone that could be contacted for assistance. You have my permission to also list my home phone number and my email (TheScout@metalsmith.org) as ways to contact me. It may be of interest to our members to show them that there is interest developing and what requirements are being made. I could
also probably dig up the old requirements for the Blacksmith MB that was discontinued in the 50's if you are interested (but it could take a while).
Thanks,
Rich Herman

******
To: <forum@metalsmith.org>
Subject: new format
Mr. Olson: I like the new format a great deal more than the old one. Easier to read, hold and follow from page to page. I enjoy "The Forum" very much and look forward to it each month. I'm sure it's a pain in the butt sometimes but please know your efforts are appreciated.
Also, do you know Elizabeth Brim's email address? Even her snail mail address would suffice. I tried some inflation work and wanted to send her a photo but the email address I have for her is no longer valid.
Thank You, Noble Nygaard

---
To the best of my knowledge Elizabeth doesn't have an email address. She can be reached snail mail.
Elizabeth Brim
c/o Penland School for the Crafts
PO BOX 37
Penland, NC 28765-0037
ed.

******
From al down under
all,
time is flying. i've packed up and sent home all of the stuff i didn't need or couldn't use. no sense in carrying it around the world. it's time to think about the next step. my date for redeployment is 15 feb. of courseweather has a lot to do with it. speaking of weather, it's been fantastic.
don't feel sorry for me! i'm feeling sorry for you if you're in minnesota. i played frisbee today in tshirt and jeans! our new year's celebration included an annual outdoor concert dubbed "icestock." mactown hit a high record of 51 degrees F. in a town of 1100, you might guess that we have a few musicians. they've formed six or so bands. so we have live music for some of the parties that happen. you'd be surprised at how creatively a garage or helo hanger or flatbed truck can be decorated and turned into a rockin bash. the odd parachutes make for great backdrops. we work hard and play hard. sunday mornings are typically lazy with a big, tasty, brunch to weigh down the stomach. the coast guard (coasties) icebreakers, polar sea and polar star, have broken the path to town a couple weeks ago. it was interesting to walk outside of town once in a while to see their progress. most of town was given a half day boondoggle, where we went for a little cruise, starting from our ice pier and going a few miles north. i have yet to see open water. although looking down from the deck, as we steamed through the ice chucks you could see the most wonderful color of blue. the ice chucks were anywhere from slush to the size of a house. i'd guess 10
feet thick nearest town. the seals have quickly taken advantage of the opportunity to move south with the new road. i've seen many from a distance, laying on the ice taking a nap. big blobs. they have no predators above the ice. if we could get a good blow from the south, a lot of ice would leave.
maybe then we'll see orca whales and penguins near town. the ice pier is an interesting story. in the winter season. fleet ops will berm up snow around the perimeter of the pier, then flood it with water. after it freezes, they'll do it again and again. thereby making sort of an artificial ice berg that is rectangular. the bottom near shore drops off fast and deep, so they cable the thing to shore so it doesn't float away and freeze cleats into the top for ship tie off. pretty slick. the top is grated with gravel and you wouldn't know it's floating ice to look at it. annual ship offload should be around the first week of feb and i will be doing grunt work relating to milvan containers and pallets of galley supplies. 12 hour shifts nonstop.
something different i guess. town is getting full lately. transient russians, italians, outcamp scientists, coasties, etc, are here now, on their way off the ice. and the navchaps aren't even here yet from the supply ship. people are well into planning their travels post ice, and ice jobs for next year. beth is planning to meet me in NZ to do some traveling and sailing i hope for three weeks or so. i am looking forward to a sunset, you might not appreciate that but i do. some trees might be nice too. if you're interested in the scientific things around here you can visit <http://www.mcmurdo.gov> and go to SCIENCE then GRANTEE WEBSITES. there's a list of universities/organizations that have people smewhere down here doing their research. i continue to be busy 6 days a
week fixing stuff. the galley folks may as well adopt me, that's where i spend most of my time anymore. if it's not that huge dishwasher contraption that's almost big enough to live in, it's something that doesn't get hot any more. putting all of that plumbing, mechanical, an electrical know how to work. ain't bad really, beats mindless repetition. it's still the lack of parts that makes life interesting. the warm weather has played havoc with the road going to the runway, where there's another, smaller, galley. it's like a small village out there. i went out there to work on something a
couple weeks ago and thought i was going to be stuck axle deep in slush. that, in a f350 4x4 pickup with big balloon tires. even though i'm not used
to four wheeling this kind of rig, the greater minnesota experience got me across 'the transition.' that's where the permanent ross iceshelf slams intothe permanent ross island. it can get soupy this time of year. not to worry though, there always seems to be a delta or bulldozer within a half hour's time to pull the wounded egos out of the mess. they since closed the road to everything but large tire vehicles or tracked vehicles. i haven't seen them for a while, but there are these same size pickup trucks that have 4 tracks instead of 4 wheels. lots of odd vehicles around here. forklifts from the navy days that can be driven into the milvan containers. our shop filled two milvans yesterday with junk in our storage yard to be shipped home as scrap.
it would be interesting to bid on the tons of stuff that goes to pt. hueneme, california, to be sold off, when the ship arrives. i'm a packrat, nice to have the right parts, the right supplies, the right tools. life is much better then. i had another chance to fly out to black island a week ago to do some maintenence as they are closing the station down for the winter by 4 feb. mactown itself is only about a couple hundred people in the winter. the last flight out will be about the third week of feb. the next one will be 'winfly' which is late august for a short window, followed by 'main body' again in oct. i'm half tempted to try a winter sometime. well that's my life lately. hope you're mildly curious or at least mildly amused. thank you everyone for emailing me. i save them and reread them sometimes. unfortunately the ones with pictures, i have to delete after a short time, in order to save space in my account. be well my friends, alan olson

******

******
Want Ads are free to members
(and if the some nonmember is selling tools and equipment that may benefit members and the smithing community by keeping good tools in circulation, we will print those free too (anvils, forges, etc.)) Ads, (and letters) are published on a space available basis. This notice needs to ride on one stamp, so if there are too many pages some editing may be done or the ad may be pushed into the next issue.
Display advertising rate is the same as for Metalsmith. Half sheet, 4 insertions, for $50.
(Thats full page here, half page in Metalsmith)

Coming in February

The February membership meeting will be at Arms and Armor on Stinson Blvd at Broadway NE in Minneapolis on Wed the 13th.

Coming in March

Forged Blade Workshop Mar 2

Altoid Tin Workshop Mar 3

Board Meeting Mar 13

Tong Making Workshop Mar 16

Coming up in April

Membership Meeting on the 10^th

Tools a study guide Workshop

The Northern Minnesota Blacksmiths

Spring conference April 27^th - 28^th

9:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.

(back side of Forged Blade Workshop coupon, fill out other side)

Mail to: Jim Moenck

661 Dorland Rd. S

Maplewood, MN

Cost: $25.00

Check payable to: The Guild of Metalsmiths
Description: Participants will learn the basic forging process of a knife blade. We will lightly cover some grinding / finishing techniques, as well some instruction on heat treating your blade.

What to bring: Participants must ahve their own saftey glasses, ear plugs, a good hammer and your favorite bucket of tools. Cotton clothing and suitable footware is also required.

Bring a lunch, or eat at local establishments.

Class Size: 8

Cost: Price of class is $25.00. All material will be furnished.

Send registrations to: Jim Moenck
661 Dorland Rd. S
Maplewood, MN 55119

Sat. March 2, 2002 from 9am to 4 pm
Mail to: Jim Moenck
661 Dorland Rd. S
Maplewood, MN
Cost: $25.00 Check payable to: The Guild of Metalsmiths

Name:____________________
Address:_____________________________________________
City:__________________
State:______ZIP:_____
Phone:______________________

(Back of Altoids Tin Workshop Coupon)

Fill out other side and mail to

Gene Olson

8600 NE O'Dean Ave

Elk River MN 55330

With your check for $25 made out to "The Guild of Metalmsmiths"

Altoids Tin Workshop
Class size: 10

(if we are oversubscribed an additional session may be held on Sat. Mar. 9^th )
Cost: $25
Description:
We will be exploring various ways to decorate a sheet metal object. We will make some simple tools and use them. We will look at design source material and discuss adapting it to our uses or using it as a springboard to our own designs. We will work on layout and transferring a design to the workpiece. We will be punching, forming, and soldering.
You will go home with some handouts, a few simple tools, and hopefully some new ideas about what you can do with metal.
This is an introductory session.
You need to bring:
Eye and ear protection, gloves, a small ball pein hammer (4-6 oz), and a larger one (12 - 16 oz), a propane torch if you have one. An Altoids tin or two. (We do have a stash of them here if you don't like candy) (You can also bring your favorite box or pail of tools for sheet metal, snips, saws, pitch pot, chasing tools if you have them)
A box lunch.

Cut here

March 3^rd 2002 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Mail to: Gene Olson
8600 NE O'Dean Ave
Elk River MN 55330
Cost: $25.00 Check payable to: The Guild of Metalsmiths

Name:____________________
Address:_____________________________________________
City:__________________
State:______ZIP:_____
Phone:______________________

Tong Making Workshop

Back side of Tong Making Workshop coupon

fill out other side

and send to:

Bob Fredell

3500 45^th Ave. So.

Minneapolis, MN 55406

with your check for $15

made out to:

"The Guild of Metalsmiths"

Tong Making Workshop
Cost $15 .00
Class size 8
Description Participants will make a pair of traditional flat lip tongs using traditional methods. The handler will be forge welded to the jawa. Instruction will include how to modify the jaw design to make a variety of tongs for different purposes. For example: box, chain or bolt tongs.

You need to Bring: Participants must have their own safety glasses, ear plugs and a good hammer or two Wire Brush, and tongs for half inch stock. Your favorite bucket of tools. Cotton clothing and suitable footwear (ie. leather shoes) are also required.

Bring a lunch or eat at one of the local establishments.


To reserve a spot in this workshop send your check for $15 payable to "The Guild of Metalsmiths" to Bob Fredell, 3500 45^th Ave So, Minneapolis, MN 55406 .

cut here

Tong Making Workshop

Sat. March 16^th , 2002 from 9 am to 4 pm
Mail to: Bob Fredell, 3500 45^th Ave So, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Cost: $15.00 Check payable to: The Guild of Metalsmiths

Name:____________________
Address:_____________________________________________
City:__________________
State:______ZIP:_____
Phone:______________________