[TheForge] "Official" news from ABANA

[Jerry Smith]

Dann,

A copy of that book is in my library with many more.
When I get up in the morning, I am ready to start
hammering. So I am a "full timer" if you want to use
that phrase. I do other things in metal, like casting
gold for jewelry, and making knives. 

I am planning on building a bronze/aluminum foundry
this coming summer, so I can do my own casting. I sell
a lot of stuff via word of mouth and the internet.
This is my life.

All of this discussion about ABANA, we should look to
see if we really benefit from membership. What is the
percentage of members that go to the national events,
and how many members go to local or regional events.

I want to learn about smithing, but the ABANA route is
too expensive for me and this discusion is causing me
information overload. Let go out; do some heating and
beating!

Jerry


--- dann at wctatel.net wrote:

> 
> My first book on blacksmithing was Alex Bealer's
> "The Art of
> Blacksmithing".  His book isn't a great -HOW TO-
> book, rather it SELLS THE
> DREAM of working metal the old way, rather than the
> Cut and Paste kind of
> blacksmithing done in weld shops.
> 
> My local EAA chapter has 50+ members.  As a group,
> "we" have about 10
> flying Experimental Airplanes, and dreams of
> finishing more.  I'd bet that
> fewer than 1 in five EAA members actually completes
> and fly their own
> plane.  ABANA probably has figures on the
> membership, what percentage is
> full time -artist blacksmiths- some of which hold
> down paying full time
> metal working jobs.
> I'd guess that the majority are part time, or hobby
> smiths, like the
> demonstrator working the next stall from me at the
> 2006 Des Moines Ren
> Faire.  His paying day job was work in a shop that
> did mass production of
> plant hanger- Shepard’s hooks for Wal-Mart.
> 
> For me ABANA is about sharing the dream, and the
> demonstrations at
> conferences give us a quickie  -how to- try this at
> home.
> 
> Remember the old phrase " Runs like a Swiss Watch “
> My grandmother bought
> her grandsons a 17 jewel Swiss watches, about the
> time the paradigm was
> changing to cheap digital watches.  I've worn a
> series of digital Timex
> watches. From disuse, rather than use, my Swiss
> watch is still lost.
> 
> Based on Dave's statements, the membership
> attendance has plummeted for
> the last 3 ABANA conferences.  The Feb 13th
> unanimous vote by the ABANA
> board to cancel the 2008 Convention, documents that
> the ABANA board knows
> that the paradigm for the large glitzy ABANA
> conferences isn't working.
> 
> My 50-cent opinion is that ABANA original grew up
> based on a -how to-
> artist blacksmith- mission statement. As ABANA
> matured during the last 35
> years, somehow that got morphed into -high roller-
> expensive conventions
> that the bulk of the membership can't economically
> afford to attend.
> 
> There have already been some thoughtful ideas. Jerry
> offered to chair a
> new kind of event in Ohio for 2008.   If the
> projected gate  costs were
> reasonable, I, for one, would send in my advance
> ticket money for seed
> funds.
> 
> Maybe we could lease the generator from the SCA for
> 2008 and hold it on 
> their favorite site.  How much are SCA dues anyway. 
> I have been working
> with a group of  viking era re-enactors.
> 
> Dann
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > On 2/19/07, Dan Scheid <damales at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dave as a horseshoer and a SCA member I think of
> making things portable.
> >> Right now I'm living on 40 acre with out a land
> power line we have a
> >> 100KVA
> >> 3phase generator that will run all day and all
> night at about 3 gal/hour
> >> producing over 150 Amps at 440. This cost us
> $10K. Buy that and put it
> >> on a
> >> $2K Simi trailer then all you need is to ship to
> site. Add your
> >> compressor
> >> and you have both power and air. In one neat
> bundle.  Up front cost
> >> might be
> >> more but after 1 conference it would be paid for.
> >> Most SCA wars host over 5k person work because
> the groups have spent
> >> years
> >> buy the stuff they need to run the wars and the
> SCA is a NON-profit
> >> group so
> >> if they can legally own stuff so can ABANA.
> >> Dan Scheid
> >> /
> >
> > Yep. And, we'd be able to take advantage of the
> fact that if we allow
> > various groups to be in charge of their areas,
> then they're in charge
> > of their equipment, too.
> >
> > Tell you what, Dave ;-) You guys give me, say,
> $100,000 budget, and
> > I'll take the chair, and put on a conference. But,
> I get to keep
> > anything of the $100,000 I don't spend. I think I
> can guarantee you an
> > excellent conference, one which will bring in lots
> of members, that
> > people will love and be talking about for years.
> >
> > --
> > Saint Phlip
> >
> > Heat it up
> > Hit it hard
> > Repent as necessary.
> >
> > Priorities:
> >
> > It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools
> which make the smith.
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> 
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