Ashokan 2009

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
28,040
It was fun while it lasted!

I didn't get to take many photos this year, I'll rely on Chris and the other
fellows to create some nice threads to view, we were really low on attendance
but it was still great, Roman Landes was there from Germany, what a knowlegdeable guy on steel and the world of SHARP !
also Kenny Rowe was also up from the deep south, very cordial fellow too and
had a lot of insights on sheath making, of course he makes it look WAY too easy
but as I say, it's like signing his name by now! He is a master at this craft!

Tim Zowada, Kevin Cashen, Dan Maragni, Delbert Ealy and Bill McGrath also were there and gave brilliant lectures and demos!

Also I was drafted into bringing along a knife made by Tim Wright for Tim Neu
who is the director of the Ashokan Center, we've known Tim for many years
and he is such a kind fellow to put up with, as Tim Wright says, Reprobates,
at this New England Bladesmith Guild seminar every fall.

A very beautiful knife indeed;

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and a couple of quick shots of Tim as he received his knife;

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Very nice of Tim Wright to send this to Tim, to see more of Tim Wright's stuff
check this thread out Here

And a BIG thanks to all the guys that were able to make it this year, so good
to meet you guys and for some get to talk a little more and see your work
up close, next year is the SWORD year!

Sam and Erik had their swords there and WOW pretty cool stuff!!
G2
 
Definately a great time. This was my first time there but not the last.....Jim
 
I'm heartbroken that I missed such a stellar lineup of demonstrators... Gary, we need to get together one of these days so that you can show me the ins and outs of sheathmaking.

Hope everyone had a great time, and congrats to Tim Neu for such an amazing gift.
 
It was an amazing weekend indeed. Roman Landes' talks shed an entirely new light on the concept of "sharp" and steel choice and heat treat options to create the right kind of sharp for your intended use. I will never look at sharpening the same way again and all of my knives will be the better for it.

Delbert's talks on pattern welding were just as informative and thought provoking, and after some further time sitting and discussing some other things with Del, I'm going to be busy in the shop trying some new stuff when I get the current orders out.

Tim did a fantastic job on the forging demo, and even though I've been forging blades for some time now, I went away with more useful suggestions and little tricks that will make my blade forging easier. I didn't get to see much of Tim's discussions on razor honing, but from what I have heard that man can make stuff SHARP. I'll have to call Butch today and see how the razor Tim honed for him worked...

Kevin as always was a scholar and a gentleman...with just enough fun thrown in to really demonstrate the things he talks about. The heat treatment talk opened my eyes to a few things I didn't realize and gave me some fantastic demonstration techniques to take back to my blacksmith guild's knife class next month.

Kenny Rowe is a master of leather, and has a knife from me to make some clothes for right now. It'll be great to have a piece of his work here to spend some real time studying.

I could go on naming everybody and how fantastic they were, but the real world calls and I have to get moving to work. I'll go through pictures later and see if I got any good ones.

Thanks again to Tim Zowada and Kavin Cashen for making Ashokan happen again. Thanks to Paul Norris for always seeming to be there just at the right time with whatever we needed to get a hot work demo going, and a great big thanks to Tim Neu and the entire Ashokan staff for being excellent hosts yet again.

-d
 
All that, plus, the food was GREAT!
TIP: Do not sleep in the bunkhouse!; unless you don't mind sleeping through a Husqvarna convention!:D
 
TIP: Do not sleep in the bunkhouse!; unless you don't mind sleeping through a Husqvarna convention!:D

That is an understatement!!:eek:
 
Good deal. He made a nice sword. I'll post photos on mine after i finish taking them this weekend.
Stacy
 
Ok I got my Ashokan pictures uploaded and captioned on my site. Had a great time there, and I am already looking forward to next year !

http://www.tharkis.com/ashokan09.html

Too many pictures to post here, but here's one for you all, the only one with me in it on my camera. I wore my kilt all day saturday since Stacy was unable to attend.

Real men wear kilts... but lederhosen will do as well.

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Next year there will be two real men there.:thumbup:

I'll be forging in my kilt at the Williamsburg Scottish Festival on the 3rd of October....At least I think that is the right weekend.:confused:

Stacy
 
I just wanted to thank everybody, especially Tim Neu, Kevin Cashen, Tim Zowada, and Roman Landes. Jim Siska's tips that he gave me on grinding really helped my grinding; tried them out today:thumbup:.
- Thanks again, everybody.
 
Sam Salvati said:
Erik's did Stacy.
Click to expand...
Hey, I didn't even get a chance to vote for myself! :confused::D

Delbert made an awesome gladius style out of damascus and mokume...he did make a remark after looking mine over that I must have used as much epoxy as he did :D

It was a great weekend and those who weren't able to make it were definitely missed. I did pick up a vertical HTing kiln from the estate of the late Paul Champagne. I hope one day I can live up to a small amount of his talent and let a piece of him live on in my work. His work will be missed and having never personally meeting him is what I consider an even greater loss.
 
Great pics, Justin... I can't believe I missed Roman Landes!! AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Great pics, Justin... I can't believe I missed Roman Landes!! AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
Click to expand...

And Matt, the really sad thing was, Roman was looking around and asking if you were here this year!
I thought, WOW, Roman Landes looking for Matthew Gregory! amazingly small world
he was heartbroke of course at the news ;)
G2

ps nice shots Justin, I was in a down camera mood this year for some reason
not sure why? you could NOT have asked and gotten a better weekend weather
wise and session wise too, next year Matt, SWORD year! :)
G2
 
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