Mike in his usual and delightful way demonstrated and explained step by step how to forge a blacksmith hammer. As in every demo Mike has done, and there have been many over the years, Mike's knowledge and common sense approach to making any object, made this demo understandable and a treat to watch. He is, as has been said before, a born teacher. His apprentice and able helper, aka, fiance Ashley, did a terrific job as striker and tongs handler.. Mike's mother also made a critical appearance as once again delivered a couple of large bowls of absolutely delicious cookies, of which I had at least three!This meeting had another large turnout, to wit, 37 people with some new prospective members.

Additionally, Jim Moran confirmed that our area has been selected for the 2020 ABANA conference, which will be in the Saratoga area. Help in needed at all venues. Contact Jim (439-5439) for details or to sign up. Jim also discussed setting up actual hands on workshops for members the weekend before the usual meeting at Pat's Forge to help the honing or learning of new skills. Contact Jim for details.

The next meeting will be at Pat's forge on February 26 when I will have a short demo (due to the depth of my skills/knowledge!) on making woodworking tools i.e., gouges and chisels out of garage door spring steel.

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Rand Condell said we have been chosen to hold the ABANA 2020 meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY. That is great news, but we now need a lot of people to volunteer to assist at that Conference. It's seems a long way off, but we will be there before we know it. So, we need an honest commitment from a lot of people to help both plan the conference and work during the conference. Blacksmith skills are nice but not that important, a willingness to help is the main skill. Please let me know that you can help.

Thanks Jim Moran 439-5439

Today's meeting was held at Aggressive Metalworks in Guilderland, hosted by Mike Cataldo. As expected, Mike gave a spectacular power hammer demonstration. He explained the different types of power hammers, and went into great depth on tooling and dies used with them. Especially useful was his demonstration on the use of a "saddle" which is a simple but clever quick release devise used for holding various type of fullers. He also demonstrated making a ball on the end of a half inch square bar, and demonstrated an angled fullering tool that is used for beveling hatchets and axe heads. We were also entertained with forge welding a 1080 carbon steel plate onto a forged mini anvil Mike made out of a 2"x2" square rod. Mike's generously equipped shop allowed for a lot of open forge opportunities using his many anvils and several folks took advantage. As always, this was a great event at Aggressive Metalworks, and we all thank Mike for his hospitality and sharing his skills at teaching, which are impressive.

Novembers meeting will be on simple and quick forged items that can make a good Christmas gift. If anyone has anything they would like to demonstrate, let Jim or Jack know. See the schedule for what Jim has in mind for November.

Good hammering!

Paul Crosby

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!