Gil introduced us to a simple way to weld different material together where heavy duty strength is not required. The process is actually very simple, whether you are doing lap joints, finger joints or more complicated joints. Using copper electrical wire (14/2, 12/2, etc.) and borax flux, you secure the joints together using regular wire to keep the pieces stable while you wrap a piece of the copper wire around the work piece -the tighter the pieces can be secured first, the better. Then add flux, get the iron orange hot and when the copper seems to disappear, the weld has taken place - in most cases! Very slick and something several of us never saw demonstrated before. Good presentation, and Gil's mechanical drawing class style sketches were very accurate and damn good!

REMINDER, OUR SEPTEMBER MEETING WILL BE AT JOE MERLI'S CANAL STREET STATION ON RTE. 20 IN DUANESBURG. SEE THE WRITE UP AND OUR WEBSITE DIRECTIONS TO IT.

What a surprise! Who would ever have expected that a demo on making, of all things, bottle openers, would have us riveted for an hour and a half! Rob is an excellent teacher and clearly explained the physics of how a bottle opener works and why. During the demo, Rob also made several varieties of openers using everything from a railroad spike to various gauges of round stock. The one- handed opener which works by squeezing causing a downward motion to the opener was unique and my favorite, which I just might have to try! Good job Rob - we need you to sign up to share with us more adventures into creative blacksmithing! October, November and January are still open!

Reminder, Gil Bullock will demo "Forge Brazing on August 28. Should be very good demo!

If you missed this meeting you really missed a good one! Jim did the hammering and Paul directed and explained what they were doing - and why - every step of the way. Paul also brought and posted a number of knife and metal related info sheets and discussed the same and which types of steel make the best knives and why. Paul also brought a number of scrap iron pieces, such as flat and round vehicle springs, stainless steel bearings,old files, power hammer bits, etc. and discussed the merits of each and steel types, etc. and which should be used depending on the goal you have in mind. Overall, a terrific meeting. Paul is a natural teacher. Well done, Paul (your helper was ok too!)!!

Paul Crosby found Sipperly Bros on Elm St in Watervliet NY. Call them at 518-210-3024 to get good directions and to make sure they are there. I drove north on 787 till I got to the first red light and turned left to find Elm Street. He said Noah Khoury use his coal, so I assumed it's good, will test soon. I pick up five bags ( $60 ) for the forge. The way things are going ,maybe we should try wood pellets. Jim

Last month Pete Schmidt gave Jim a really terrific Blacksmithing book which led Jim to come up with the idea of seeing if there was any interest in establishing a lending library of books, etc. folks would like to share with other members who might not have read that particular tome. Plus, Jim has a load of good magazines from ABANA , Hammer's blow, etc. he would love to share (and get out of his house!). The idea would be to set this up in the back room utilizing a simple sign out sheet following the honor system. So, if interested, and have some material you are tired seeing around the house or shop, bring them to the next meeting and we will see how this whole idea develops.