ABS School in Old Washington, AR - Day #1

Steven Roos

Steven Roos

Joined
Jun 29, 2002
Messages
4,131
Well, day one of the ABS School is over. My hands hurt...bad. Great school, great place, and a great teacher, Bailey Bradshaw!

Can't wait for tomorrow. When I get home I'll be sure to post pics.
 
Bailey is a nice guy and a superb bladesmith. As for the school , I live pretty close to it, so they have to beat me away with a stick! I'll be driving by on Thursday (going to Al's) and I may stop in to meet the class. I look forward to meetin you, Steven. Pester Bailey to take yall to Al's for a fine meal and a great evening of knife talk. Eats are at 5:00 pm. Lin Rhea :)
 
Enjoy Steven,

Aside from knives, Bailey is one of my favorites as a person (don't mean to scare him.) :). I bet he is a heck of a teacher and great to work with.
 
Keep in mind how generous Bailey is being by teaching now. He has a new family member (4-legged) and every hour away, even bladesmithing, has to hurt.
 
lwrhea said:
Bailey is a nice guy and a superb bladesmith. As for the school , I live pretty close to it, so they have to beat me away with a stick! I'll be driving by on Thursday (going to Al's) and I may stop in to meet the class. I look forward to meetin you, Steven. Pester Bailey to take yall to Al's for a fine meal and a great evening of knife talk. Eats are at 5:00 pm. Lin Rhea :)
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Class lets out at 5:00, so we hope to be there! :D
 
shaldag said:
Keep in mind how generous Bailey is being by teaching now. He has a new family member (4-legged) and every hour away, even bladesmithing, has to hurt.
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He was telling me that he's been spending a lot of time with his new horse. I'm glad he's able to come out and teach!
 
Bailey and Bruce were my teachers two years ago. Both guys are top notch. I had a great time, except the first day I damn near died ;).

I've never seen rain at 90 degrees, but the first day of class it poured and it was hot. I over heated and barely made it back to the hotel room for lunch. I ended up getting in the shower and collapsing, I rolled out of the shower and laid bare ass on the floor for two hours. I told my fiancee to call an ambulance if I passed out, she threw a towel over me :). In hind sight I should have gone to the hospital, and in even farther hind sight I should have been taking a break every half hour and guzzling water.

The moral of the story is stay the hell out of Arkansas in June if you want to stand around a forge ;) :p ;) .

Make sure you drink plenty of fluids and take a few minutes to relax.

I'm sure you're having a blast, wish I was there.

Matt
 
Good on ya, Steven. I can hardly wait to see the fine forged knives you are going to be creating.
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Broke my first knife today (intentionally). Big time learning experience.

Had a great time at Uncle Al's. Spent too much money though! lol!
 
Steven , it was good to have met your class yesterday. I stopped in for a visit mid afternoon on my way to Al's. I got to see some of your blades and say hi to Bailey B. and Reggie Barker, who also was visiting. Enjoy your class.

Longrifle, I could'nt help but laugh at your experience of the Arkansas humidity. I'm laughing with you. I struggle though these summers every year working outside. Sometimes I come home and just lay in the floor on the carpet till I get cooled off. Working around the forge is even harder. I did that last week and it took way into the night to feel cool. The heat can be oppressive, but like you said, drinking lots of water will make it bearable.
Lin :)
 
Home again home again. The class is over for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole class did exceptional, and I was taken by their "listen, watch, and try" attitude. Every person there was forging with good control and several good blades were produced. We broke several to test and evaluate the grain refinement and heat treat. Some blades almost needed a truck to pull them to bend and break. We literaly started to pull the boards off the surface of the bench where the vise is mounted. I was very pleased with everyone's progress. I believe my best class to date.

Our Own Steven Roos will hopefully add more soon. Steven graced me by carrying the micarta handled DB lock back he owns. I think I learned as much from them as I was able to teach, weather any of them realize it or not.

All the best guys, and lets see some pics of the forgings ASAP.
 
Bailey, we missed you at Al's gathering. It was nice to meet the class. They all seemed very eager to learn. See ya around.

Brett
 
Thanks for the kind words Bailey. I'll get pics up ASAP.

I need to get that big one done so I can practice rope-cutting though.
 
All right Steven.....You guys should have some blades ready to test, or have tested some of them by now. We want pics we want pics we want pics....


At least a report. :cool:
 
Bailey Bradshaw said:
All right Steven.....You guys should have some blades ready to test, or have tested some of them by now. We want pics we want pics we want pics....


At least a report. :cool:
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Well, many of us have blades that are cutting nicely. I've got a little hunter out of 1084 that has a nickle-silver ferrule (poorly) fitted. I got a piece of ebony and a nickle-silver pin from Uncle Al today, along with some solder. I'll solder the guard when I get home and then handle and finish the knife. I also got an apron from Kenny Rowe today. It is awesome, but too big...oops! I'll be seeing him tomorrow about an exchange. (and a sheath)

My test knife got forged, normalized, annealed, and profiled today. Tommorrow I hope to quickly grind, heat treat, and test the knife. I'll get some pics!
 
Hey there Bailey I finally got some control on my heat treating and have bent and broken several blades with Lots of very fine grain and beter than 90 degree bends. Some have Taken several people flexing them numerous times to get them to brake while still being hard enought to cut and chope with out edge damage.I have also gotten the Nack of rope cutting and Have ground several knives and chopped several 2x4's. I am very happy with My experiance at the Washington School and have learnd more in to weeks than I have on my own in the last 2 years in the ABS.as soon as i Have the Ability to Post Pics of my work on here I will. Thanks again Bailey.
 
That sounds great Marshall!! Nothing like fine grain to make a blade super tough. You guys really impressed me with your ability to take what I showed you and duplicate it so quickly.

Once you get the hang of that rope cutting, it's almost adictive isn't it.
 
I went up to supposedly help Baily thursday but as usual I learned a lot. Great group in that class I can see some good smiths coming out of it. Hate I had to miss Uncle Al's.
Reggie
 
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