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	The Forum The Guild of Metalsmiths Monthly Notice June 2003 Vol. 5, No. 6
	Forum or Metalsmith? The real question... During the last twenty seven years of the Guild, we have been fortunate enough to have evolved in many ways. We promote blacksmithing both to the public as well as to our membership. We use several mediums for doing this. We have conferences, workshops, public demonstrations, and hammer-ins, just to name a few. Two separate publications of the Guild are circulated regularly to the membership that offer tips on technique, shop ideas, project ideas, as well as keep our membership informed as to what things are happening, when things are happening, where they are happening, etc. We are very fortunate to be able to provide this much data in such an organized fashion. It takes the work and time of many volunteers to publish and circulate this information. Georgia Myers lays out, edits, and compiles The Forum. She forwards it to Karen Boberg, who prints it and gets it out into circulation. The Metalsmith is a quarterly publication put together by The Metalsmith editorial board made up of Marcia McEachron, editor, Bob and Mary Fredell, John Moriarity, and yours truly, David Mariette. As we (Georgia and Marcia) are always looking for articles to put in these publications, there is some confusion on the part of nearly everyone, including the respective editors, as to what information goes where, and to which publication. I wish to clear the air once and for all. It is likely that in reality I will just confuse everybody, but I'm going to give it a shot. You all won't read this thing if it gets too long winded so I'll the skip the history lesson on how these two publications came to be, and I'll just cut to the chase. The Forum is mainly a medium for time sensitive data that informs us as to the what, when, and where things are happening, and information on activities that have happened (feedback). Also, Board meeting minutes are published in The Forum. The Metalsmith is a quarterly publication that covers a bit of the same information, but because it is published quarterly, time sensitive information is hard to get out in timely fashion. At one time Francis Whitaker thought The Metalsmith was one of the best blacksmithing publications in this country. The Metalsmith has won awards from ABANA for best publication. The Metalsmith contains mostly "how to" information, and quick tips on various subjects as well as information on individual members and what they do relative to metalsmithing. The Metalsmith is circulated to other editors of newsletters across the country, and in return many of them are circulated to us. From time to time we will include articles from those publications as well. We are always looking for articles to publish, so if you have something you think we should all know, by all means let us have it! Deadline for The Forum is the third Monday of the month for the following month's issue. Deadline for The Metalsmith fluctuates a bit, but you can contact Marcia McEachron for such information. — Dave Mariette, Board Chair
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	Forum deadline for June, 2003 If you have activities that will be occurring in late July or August, please send them by Monday, June 16, 2003 to Georgia Myers, editor, by e-mail to: forum@metalsmith.org (e-mails will be forwarded to Georgia Myers) or mail them to: Georgia Myers 313 Dakota St Lake City MN 55041		Guild educational grants There is grant money available for Guild members to study intermediate and advanced metalworking techniques. The Guild educational grant program is designed to bring new skills into the metalworking community. Participants are given money to pay for a portion of their expenses and are expected to learn some new or poorly understood skill, and then to share what they have learned with other members and the public through an article in our quarterly magazine, "The Metalsmith." They're also expected to lead a workshop on the topic (or other educational service approved by the board). Application forms are available from the president or treasurer at a regular meeting, or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: The Guild of Metalsmiths PO Box 11423 St. Paul MN 55111


	The Guild of Metalsmiths, St. Paul, MN, publishes the GoM Forum monthly. It is intended as a tool to further our educational mission, to keep members up to date on current happenings, to publicize projects and workshops, a place for all members to express their opinions, concerns, learn more about each other—in short, to help us run our organization. Your comments can be mailed to The GoM Forum, c/o Georgia Myers 313 Dakota St Lake City, MN 55041-1869 or e-mailed to forum@metalsmith.org


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	Letter from the editor Thanks to David Mariette for defining the purposes of both The Forum and The Metalsmith in his article found on page one. We proceed from here!
	In this issue of The Forum, I've included a new feature on the last page that will reoccur each month. As not only a convenience, but also as a way of sharing information from the Guild's sister organizations, the calendar of events highlights memorable and time-worthy dates during a two-month span that could be of interest to members. In this issue you'll find June and July events. In the July issue, you'll find July and August events, and so on into infinity. If you have an event to be highlighted, please send it to me via e-mail, telephone, or U.S. Postal Service. See page two for addresses. My phone number is 651-345-2719. If you have a suggestion to change or improve The Forum, please use any of the methods above to share your ideas with me. I'm eager to know what folks want to see in this publication. Also, I've been receiving newsletters from our sister organizations throughout the USA, and since they contain not only good ideas for meetings and events, but also educational material, I'll either bring them or send them to Guild meetings for all to appreciate. As of June 1, I have newsletters from Western Reserve in Ohio, Northern Minnesota Metalsmiths in the Bemidji area, Pittsburgh Area Artist-Blacksmiths Association, and Louisiana Metalsmiths Association. Thanks to the board of the Guild of Metalsmiths for allowing me to provide editing services for your monthly notice, The Forum. I'm enjoying the privilege! — Georgia Myers, editor, The Forum

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	Guild of Metalmsiths Board Meeting of 14 May 2003 Submitted by Herb Fick Meeting at Myron Hanson residence. Called to order at 7:15 PM Minutes of 12 March meeting approved as read Agenda approved with addition of time for Georgia Myers regarding the Forum. Financial: Mike Frattalone Checking account is at $18,861 (Approx. $7,000 from last May) Account including Bulk Mail $19,406 Reserved for grant fund $4,972 Discretionary Fund balance $14,434 Membership 338 members Tax statements for past year are dealt with Annual not for profit application is in to State Sales tax issue: We are not exempt. We owed approximately $6000 in sales tax. We pay sales tax on coke and coal. There is a question about sales tax on coal used in workshops. The Lake Superior group has paid for the coal taken, and has sent a deposit on future deliveries. We, the Guild, will try to turn over the coal as often as we can by combining orders with other groups. Education: Bob Johnson Schedule is being prepared for next year. Registrations for workshops have sometimes closed before the announcements of the activity are out. This has been an issue on a couple of occasions where a program is new or is being tried out. See the response prepared by Bob Johnson in the Forum. Concern of the members is noted. We do not yet have a process that will prevent cases where development programs can get ahead of the publications notices. Side issue: Don Hammer and Rich Herman have been representing the guild and the skill sets with some scouting groups. This has been done on a fairly casual basis. We may have to decide where in the Board we want to place this function to keep the liabilities of the Guild in order. Program: Myron Hanson Invited demonstrators: Lorelei Simms is set for the Madness Mark and Mindy Gardner are set for the Madness. Sheran Stanaitis is setting up a spouse program Bob Beck will do a "scrimshaw" demonstration. Dave Mariette will set up a square corner forging contest The waste product Damascus project to be led by Sarah Delany The Log House showground has been upgraded to where the gallery crew will have to take care to protect the new hardwood floor in the main building. A kitchen has been added and the inside walls have been upgraded. Future: June 11, Nowthen Threshing Grounds August, Mariette's shop in Rosemount.

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	October St Catherine's, not confirmed December at the Czech (CSPS) hall in St Paul, but on the weekend instead of the Wednesday. Next program committee meeting 22 May. Publicity: Dave Mariette The Forum Georgia Myers, editor, in attendance. Wishing for policy for Forum publication. Georgia is trying to get ready to deliver at first of any month. It takes about a week to deliver. Example the deadline for the June issue is 28 May. The new goal is to have the deadline be the third Monday of each month. Georgia has no clear guidance about who to accept material from. She needs to sort of wing it and or ask questions when in doubt. We did not really fix this problem for her. The problem is to get enough volunteers to contribute. The Metalsmith has an editorial committee, but The Forum does not. The editorial committee (Mariette) offered to work on a guideline. Do we want Board meeting minutes in The Forum? The answer was yes, and Herb is to get them to Georgia. What gets publicity: Most things relating to the craft are offered space. Examples of groups offered space are Nowthen, Northern Minn, B A M, and Alamland. Those functions of the Guild are separate from the rest. An event summary may be included as the back page of the Forum. Publicity does The Forum and the Web site. Editorial does the Metalsmith. The Web site needs cleaning. This is Tom Barnett. Who gets related mail? Georgia and Marcia get mail, as an example from other guilds. The Metalsmith is sent to 49 complimentary recipients. Old business: Dave apologized for late minutes and agenda. The board votes to contract with Roger Degner to reduce Guild tapes to disc (DVD) format where there is no copyright issue. A motion was seconded and passed that he is not to exceed $1600 without coming back to the board for authorization. Roger owns the equipment t digital master the library. Reproductions will be a second issue. A motion is made that a board-chaired committee consider: Long term planning the desirability of the educational platform, a guild facility, and a development (sponsorship) program. Board members have until the next meeting to consider who volunteers to be that chairperson. New business: Coke purchase: The board will get pricing on delivered coke. The activity is tabled until Myron gets well. Venture Scouts: Herb will contact Bill Bull to invite him to the next board meeting to see what it is he would like in the way of a scout training program. Note that this is not part of the merit badge discussion for scouting. Ollie Juaire: Dave Mariette offers to do an article on Ollie for the Metalsmith. Georgia will put a thank you for Ollie in The Forum. Pete Stanaitis prepared an Ollie video. Submitted, Herb, 29 May 2003 507 663 0569 Northfield MN 55057 2508 fick@rconnect.com

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	Product of May hammer-in Herb Fick started this knife in December, 2002, and finished it in May at Mike Blue's Hammer-in. On the facing page, Mike describes two events and invites attendees to sign up for another.



		Thank you "The family of Oliver Juaire thanks you for your kind expression of sympathy, and for the beautiful flowers. They were much appreciated."

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				cast alloy out of L6 with a little vanadium contamination for Howard Clark. He got about a 3 pound button out of the crucible after a four hour burn. When ground and polished it etched in a wootz like pattern. It should be a very interesting steel. Mike Blue Hammerin, May 03 The highlight of Saturday was having Richmond McCluer and Eric, one of his students, come by late in the day to teach everyone how to cut with a sword. He teaches martial arts in the Winona area. They had soaked a bunch of rice straw mats and rolled them into full and half sizes. Everyone who wanted to take a turn slicing through the mats with Japanese swords got as many turns as they wanted. Randal found a large size scramasax to use and it's pretty evident why that blade design has stood the test of time. Many of those who cut that evening left with a gleam in their eye and blood pounding from finding the inner Viking or Celt. I appreciate the help of all who attended. Without it, there wouldn't be gatherings like this to generate the memories and learning about the craft. The next event is in late September, when Kay Vikstrom from Finland will be here to do a three or four day class on making a puuko. Everyone will leave with a completed knife and sheath. This class will be a bit more expensive, but not more than the $250 that some other places charge. Birch burl and half rawhide leather ain't cheap, neither are plane tickets from Finland. This will be a small seminar (less than 15 or so), so anyone interested needs to contact me soon. The small seminar in December is already filling up. This will also be a small hands-on seminar (less than 15 or so) like last year's, so anyone interested needs to contact me, although there's not as much of a rush. — Mike Blue
	Cannon River Forge Hammerin, May 9, 10, 11, 2003 This year the hammerin was held in May to avoid heat prostration. Although the Farmer's Almanac-predicted rain did show itself for a bit, the hammerin went off without a hitch. We didn't have any ground fault forge flareups this year because we were competing for attendance with the repousse class. Instructors were Bill Fiorini, who returned this year to lecture the new folks about damascus steel. Jim Miller went through the assembly and finishing of handles and guards with several of the attendees this year. Jim is a master knifemaker who makes the work look easy. Ed Linhardt set up his table with his engraving tools and allowed anyone with the patience to take a turn. Terry Knipshield and Al Dippold took up the duty of sharing what they know about everything and also found time to talk a bit about folding knives. Les Voorhies worked hard in the grinding side of the shop helping folks keep all the lines straight. Craig Johnson, of Arms and Armor, brought his knife collection along with a couple long pieces from the Oakeshott's museum for show and tell. Peter Martin brought his tabletop 25lb air hammer, which got a good trial run from Randal Graham and others. Randal demonstrated his prototype gas forges and also had a chance to forge out a scramasax from some of Wayne Potratz' tamahagane. Peter Martin was given several chunks of the unwelded tamahagane and allowed to play with fire. He got it stuck together and up to about three welds. It was good to see some real excitement when both smiths got to work with material they'd never seen before. Ric Furrer set up his small gas fired smelter and made some "special"
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	Coming Soon... New Hubler Display in Wright County The late Paul Hubler was a long time resident of Wright County, and when the county historical society learned about what a talented smith they had had in their midst, they asked if they could put up a display about him and his work. At the same time, The Guild was grappling with keeping their collection of Paul's special tools secure but still accessible, knowing full well how things get borrowed, lost or just forget to come back. We seem to have found a happy compromise. The Guild will loan the tools to the Wright County historical society which will place them in cases on public display so that anybody that wants to see the special eye punches that Paul made for his animal heads or the other tools in the collection can go see them nicely mounted at the museum in Buffalo. The Guild will still be able to check tools out from the display to use when teaching classes, but there will be a paper trail so we know where they are. On June 2 Chris Wilson, Bob and Mary Fredell, and Gene Olson spent the day cleaning and documenting the collection prior to turning it over to the museum. Our thanks to Myron Hanson who has been storing these tools for us, and those who helped us load them out of there. The Wright County Historical Society Museum is just north of Buffalo on MN 25. We will give you the address when the display is finished. It was nice to spend a day thinking of Paul. He was such a talented imp. We are all so much richer that he passed our way. — Gene Olson A close up of one of the steps in making a Dahl sheep rams head (the ones with the curled horns.)

				Mary and Chris clean and wax tools while Bob shoots photos of the collection.

				*Photos by Gene Olson*

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				Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America, Inc. PO Box 816 Farmington, GA 30638 Tel 706-310-1030 FAX 706-769-7147 abana@abana.org www.abana.org

		ABANA Affiliate Liaison Letter May 2003 ABANA Conference 2004 July 7-11, 2004 The 2004 ABANA Conference will be on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky Why not plan a family vacation in the Richmond area to coincide with the ABANA Conference? Get a load of these interesting places to visit i nKentucky! Places of interest near Richmond: (www.richmond-ky.com) Explore Daniel Boone's fort, Bybee Pottery, historic homes, Civil War tour, ferry, planetarium, golf, Kentucky Artisan Center, and more Shaker Village of Pleasant Hills: 25 miles southwest of Lexington on US 68 (www.shakervillageky.org) You may visit many Shaker buildings in their original condition. Old Fort Harrod State Park: A few miles from the Shaker Village on US 69. See the restored fort, George Rogers Clark Museum, and the Mansion Museum with Indian and Civil War artifacts. Mammoth Cave: (www.cavecity.com) This one needs no explanation. Louisville Area: (www.gotolouisville.com) Over 90 attractions, including Louisville Slugger Museum and Churchill Downs. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site: Hodgenville on US 31E. When in the area, this is a must. Bardstown Area: (www.bardstowntourism.com) My Old Kentucky Home State Park (Stephen Foster), Kentucky Railway Museum, Old Talbott Tavern, Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History, Jim Beam, Evan Williams, and Makers Mark distilleries, and much more. For lots of other places to see, go to www.kentuckytourism.com — Bob Fredell, Chairman, Member Services Committee
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	Goings on... Events in June, 2003 n Wednesday, June 11: Guild meeting at Nowthen Threshing Show grounds, 6:30 p.m. Events in July, 2003 n Wednesday, July 9: Board meeting at Myron Hanson's home, 4015 Dodd Rd, Eagan, MN, 6:30 p.m. n Thursday-Sunday, July 10-13: CanIRON IV "Come Share Our Fire" at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Editor's Note: As you can see, there's plenty of space for more events. If anyone has any information out there for July or August, please send it to me by Monday, June 16 via either forum@metalsmith.org, or gmyers@rconnect.com Thanks! — Georgia Myers, editor, The GoM Forum

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