[TheForge] ABANA cook-out

[Mike Porter]

Chris,
I was there, but working with the grounds crew and pretty tired most of the
time, so this will only be an over-view.

In the first place there were at least 1,000 people attending, but without
any sense of crowding thanks to the huge location. The exception to this
would be during moments of peak interest during demos; after all, only so
many people can swarm around a demonstrator at any given time.

The weather was fine for the most part; just a little drizzle on one day,
and sunny (low to mid seventies) with a cooling breeze off lake Washington
for the most part. 

The auction display was huge and showed very nice metal sculpture pieces
with a lot of variety.

There were classes, large and small; all well attended. People seemed to be
pretty well satisfied with what they learned. I gave one of the small
classes and was surprised by the overflow (about double the people we had
seats for). The class started fifteen minutes early and ran two hours
instead of the single hour planned for. BTW, many thanks to Dan Brewer for
his assistance in answering peoples questions; there were just too many for
one person to handle.

The demonstrations were plentiful and went on for hours; people seemed to be
quite satisfied with them too.

There was a so-called beer garden area right next to the water, with seating
under a monstrously large tent as well as outdoor seating. There was live
entertainment at night, including a band and Polynesian dancers, none of
which I stayed around for (tired old men need their sleep). Someone else can
fill you in on that. How good the beer was I don't know, but the coffee was
merely acceptable by Seattle standards.

People came from everywhere, but I enjoyed the Aussies most. They gave
excellent demos, and had a great sense of humor. Probably, the ring project
made the nicest auction item; wouldn't be surprised to find it featured in
The Anvil's Ring.

My favorite demonstrations were:
A demonstration of clay marking on Japanese swords

Raising and sinking with an air-hammer

Assembly of the ring project

There were more anvils displayed than in Kentucky. Nimba provided anvils for
all the demonstrators who wished to use them; they seemed to be very
popular.

There were, of course, air hammers galore, which have zero interest for me

There was a pretty interesting chasing hammer set-up with a low priced DVD
how-to instruction manual for sale

Swan provided very nice propane forges, brought all the way from the UK,
which were efficient, powerful, without dragon's breath, and loaded with
safety features; I considered them to be excellent in every way (except for
their fancy paint jobs, which cannot be expected to survive hard use). The
ABANA coal forges seemed to be used a lot less than in Kentucky.

Networking is probably the least mentioned and most important aspect of
these conferences. I had the pleasure of meeting Doug Endrud, one of the
readers I'd corresponded with and who's equipment is featured in the photos
at the back of Gas Burners (second printing). I also had the chance to meet
James Binnion, a metal artist who shares (important) equipment interests of
mine as well as a mutual friend. Dan and I got to spend time during the day
with Phlip, although I was too tired to make the cook-out. No doubt others
with more time made even more satisfying contacts. 

In other words, the 2006 conference was a huge success; It was bigger,
better, and a lot more comfortable than the 2004 Kentucky conference; the
on-site toilet facilities were also FAR superior.

The only disappointment was the tailgate area, which was under attended,
being a long way for many of the regulars to haul their stuff. However we
did see "just the cutest" little table-top hammer there, which Dan and I
promptly memorized; an improved version could be very handy for small work.
Mikey

 

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of xlch58 at swbell.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:32 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] ABANA cook-out

Chris Worsley wrote:

> Is anyone going to say anything in detail about the conference other 
> than a few comments on the BBQ?
> Seems like a waste of  TheForge.
> Maybe no one watched any demos or saw anything new, just ate oysters 
> and drank beer.
>
> Chris
> AZ
>
Or maybe it is because they were actually there and already had the 
opportunity to discuss points of interest -- while they were there 
eating oysters.  No one on theForge has actually asked them for details, 
unless you count your snarky comments, so  .....    I may be overacting 
to your comment, if so sorry, but a hot button of mine is  people on 
various web forums treating other posters as if they are a paid for 
service that is contractually obligated to answer all of their questions 
and entertain them as well. 

Charles

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