[TheForge] Fwd: {LAMA} Fwd:

[Dave Mudge]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <heathiron at aol.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: {LAMA} Fwd:
To: dave at magichammer.net


Dave,

I saw Ivan at Lumpkin on the 40 th annerversery of the founding of ABANA.
He was suffering then too but did a good demonstration at the anvil using
clay as the material, forged with very light blows with a hammer. This was
one of his favorite techniques to get across an idea. When my wife and I
were on our honeymoon we went to Charleston, SC and on to Savannah, Georgia
where Ivan had his shop back then. That was in 1976. The day we visited his
shop, he was out to lunch, but one of his assistants showed us around. It
astonished us that it was on the first floor of a big multi story brick
building. I seem to remember two very large forges. We were sorry to miss
him but a few years later when he led the project to forge that gate (the
small one inside the brick museum building) at Sloss in Birmingham, I met
him. Jim Batson and I along with others in Alabama helped. I remember
striking with a sledge for Batson as we cut the slots in some of the flat
iron that was threaded together with heavy bars through the slots. It was
amazing to see how he conducted first the planning of the gate project,
then confirm the design with a free discussion along with techniques, the
division of the labor set up that he organized before we even started the
shop work, and finally all of it coming together amazingly quickly. I had
to leave before the gate was finished but the Alabama boys got it together
and hung the gate in the museum. He knew how to work men and he understood
his metal in relation to what the men could do. That alone impressed me the
most about Ivan. He showed me, at least, that blacksmithing is a matter of
using your head, not so much about having strong arms, although that is a
help. He did a lot of his forging with about a five pound cross pene
hammer in one hand. I hate to see him go.
 Bob Heath


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Ed Lancaster* <elanc at cox.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Subject:
To: Dave Mudge <dave at magichammer.net>


  To All,****
I am writing to tell you of the passing of a great smith, a really good guy
and a friend of mine for probably twenty five years.****
Ivan Bailey passed away this morning, September 9, 2013 and 7:30 Eastern
daylight time. Ivan has been suffering with a harsh form of cancer since he
was diagnosed last year. I visited with him twice since his illness and
witnessed the affection had for him by his fellow founders of Abana forty
years ago. Their celebration event was held exactly forty years after the
founding at the same place as Abana’s  birth. Weeks later at the Southern
Blacksmiths Association conference in Madison Ga, Ivan was again a featured
speaker.****
I spoke to him briefly on this past Sunday. He was weak, but prepared to
“graduate” as he called it. I was amazed at the positive attitude and
downright cheerful demeanor he has had throughout his illness. You would
never imagine , talking to him, that he was a man  knowing he was on deaths
door.  ****
I have attached a picture of Ivan, David Mudge and me in my shop in Kenner
where he demonstrated twenty years ago. Many of you were there for that
demo. I also included a picture of a sculpture piece of his that I always
liked. There are so may pictures of his work over the last forty years that
are included on a CD I have that is was hard to choose so I just grabbed
this one.****
Feel free to forward this to anyone you care to.****
** **
Sorry for the sad tidings, but keep Ivan in your prayers,****
 ** **
Ed Lancaster****

**