ABS California Bladesmithing Exposition

I thought I'd bump this up for anyone who didn't see it and might be interested. The hammer in is next week. I can't wait.
 
What an excellent event. Mike Vagnino out did himself as usual pulling together great talent and a fantastic hammer-in!

Lots of great people and an incredible time. We had around 60 attendees this year. Sure wish I took more pictures but this is what I have. Hopefully others will post more.

Tom Ferry giving instruction on mosaic Damascus. Note the pasta maker at the edge of the table. He used this along with modeling clay to show the result of stacking and manipulating with instant visual results.

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Example of Tom's Damascus samples that were created by stacking and manipulating clay just as you would steel...

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Mike Vagnino pointing to a stone that was from Mt. Hood. This stone had a very high silica content and when heated in the forge allowed for a knife to be embeded into it. A modern day "sword in the stone".

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Bill Burke and Tom Ferry movin steel

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Dave Lisch had to get in on the action...

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[video=youtube;lRVXI23VOw8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRVXI23VOw8[/video]

Bill Burke forging the billet to shape...

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Looking good!

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Thanks again to all that made this a great event!
 
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Nice pics Eric! It was so cool to see you again. The entire five day weekend was a blast. I know they're planning even bigger and better things for next year. It's gonna be very exciting.
 
Good to see you guys again. Another amazing weekend. I got home from the show and had to go back to work, so I'm keeping my knifemaking excitement all bottled up until I can get into the shop.

Dan
 
I wish I could have made it down. Looks like you all had a lot of fun. Dan long time no talk whats up??
 
Hey Chuck! It's getting better all the time around here. Been a bit of recovery from my heart "thing" but I'm getting back to it.

There's some ideas being tossed around for next years hammer-in, to try to make it the envy of all other hammer-ins. Plan now to attend.

Dan
 
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