Ashokan 2011 Photos

[Gary W. Graley]

Howdy all, a great weekend, sunny, which was a very greatful addition to the north east after all the recent flooding.
Several towns were impacted very hard, one town only had one house still standing, and it was told that they
may disolve the town completely, so much devastation from the flooding.

BUT, this is about this year's Ashokan Seminar, featuring Swords, we had a lot of talent on hand to keep us occupied.
I didn't get near as many photos as I had planned, just didn't work out that way, but, here are a few from the event.

Luckily the flooding avoided our area, well almost, the back side of the campus was fairly under water, which even had
small rapids going while we were there, the water looked like something that might have flowed from Willie Wonka factory,

Sam, yes Sam was on hand this year and his lady along by his side, they sure look tailor made for each other, both
seemed to always be very happy just to be near each other, it was nice, especially since Mace was absent...

some of the folks getting ready on Friday to remove the press, as the plan was to go from raw ore/sand into a billet and forge a sword from the resulting metal.

Kevin Cashen

Phil Baldwin showed up this year too

Tim Zowada showing some of the sand

Also a visiting fellow that works with Albion Arms came from overseas, Peter Johnson, he designs
the Albion swords by researching the various museums and places that display swords.

see next post, limit of photos per post

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Stewart Feil and Brian Hunt brought a Rapier demo for us;

Herb Kettell and Nick Rossi are in the background watching the Rapier demo

I missed the Japenese presentation, nature called unfortunately and had to heed !
But here are a few of the guys waiting their turn at Mat

and some of the intended victims;

Sam's girl Alysia was trying her hand at it as well

see next post...

 

[Gary W. Graley]

There are two Red Tail hawks that hunt near by, I couldn't get too close as they flew away
but did manage to grab a couple shots,

crop of that image

close up of those talons, yikes!

The smelting area, Tim and Kevin worked on getting the stuff ready, it's quite a process !

Nathan Zowada along with a few others were making little chunks out of big chunks to feed the flame

and the flame was VERY cool, here are a few shots of that, the fire seemed quite alive!

next post

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Peter brought a couple of very interesting lectures;

Aldo on the left, not sure, but the fellow on the right, sorry man, didn't catch the name,
but he's looking at Aldo like, was it you??

Oh, and Mace, Sam picked up a little something for ya for next time, and he works that bull whip
pretty fancy like, so, better be a little nicer to Sam

A very nice weekend, great to meet you guys again,
G2

 

[butcher_block]

great pics
what weree they shot with (if i remember right from last year you had tamron glass)

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Had a new lens this year, a Canon 70-300, very nice lens. Most of the shots were taken
with that one, but some were also shot with either the Tamron 28-75 or the Canon 100 macro.
G2

 

[Mace]

Great pics Gary! Wish I was there, but I just had the best week of my life! And wouldnt have missed it for all the bowls of bacon at Ashokan!
What Sam doesnt know is that I am a whip master from way back! ....to the wiggly bridge of doom my friend!
Mace

 

[Justin.Mercier]

Fantastic photos! Many of mine didnt come out well at all... it's time for a new camera, my point and click Nikon that iv'e used for years is finally dying. Batteries dont last in it, half the screen on the back doesnt display, and it doesn't auto-focus right anymore =( I've got my photos off my camera, i'm sorting through them this afternoon.

 

[Erin Burke]

Great photos Gary... I especially enjoyed those shots of the fire. :thumbup: I'm interested to see the results of all that smelt work.
Erin

 

[Justin.Mercier]

here are some photos from me

Sam "The Man"

Alan Longmire dual wielding a seax and a James Austin axe

The mad dwarf David DelaGardelle

Sam and Alysia admiring a Japanese forging hammer that Dan Maragni brought

A 13th century sword hilt and lower blade, with the hilt still in good condition

 

[Justin.Mercier]

The obligatory BACON photo

Stacy showing how flexible his genuine antique Scottish small-sword blade is

Kevin Cashen showing Tim Zowada the mini portable tensile strength tester that he just bought tailgating. He was like a kid in a candy store!

Kevin Cashen holding up the bloomery steel blade after it was quenched and flash tempered, while the oil was heated up hotter for a longer 400 degree temper

The cries of eins zwei drei echoed out until the wee hours of the morning as these three worked on a billet

 

[Rossi Knives]

Awesome shots, boys!

Great seeing you all!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice Justin and Nick, great seeing you after all these years, one of these days will need to mosey on up the east coast and visit you guys.

Here are a few more images from the weekend,

It was Marty London's Birthday, he confided that he actually has THREE birthdays and someone dropped off a cake, Chef Michael was leading the dining hall in the traditional song

And here's a shot of the peanut gallery watching the Rapier demo near the pavillion, the trees are just on the verge of changing colour and it was a bit nippy out!

Around the smelter, tough to get sharp images of folks from the glow of the fire/sparks
Tim Zowada explaining about the smelter;

a side view of Andy Porter

a side view of Warren Strout, aka Lonewolf, my wife's uncle and the person that introduced me to Ashokan so many years ago

Tim Zowada explaining some of the ins and outs of grinding;

And a few shots in the glow of the forges;

couple more shots from the smelter fire

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

On Sunday morning there is always a show and tell and some knives are sold/traded/gifted and while I was at my small table I could just see the dark handle of a small knife three tables away, couldn't get over there to check it out, it was also next to a lighter and similar sized fixed blade knife. Didn't even know who had made them, but asked Steve Rosenbach to hand over the dark handled one, which he then said, "yeah, I'm thinking about buying this..." of course he was Then I asked for the other one and it was just slightly larger in overall size, mainly the blade was wider with a very light coloured cocobolo handle and mokume bolster.
But Steve decided to take the larger of the two, good for me? yes, good for me as I had just enough funds on hand to get the knife, which to my good fortune was made by Tim Zowada.

It's a very light and nimble little knife, the small bolster of mokume is just right to set the blade from the ebony handle, very cool, here are a few images taken today, I plan on getting some better images later on and will update or probably make a separate thread in the Gallery...

Blade is made from O1 and L6 damascus and about 3 1/4" long
Handle has a mokume bolster and ebony wood handle about 4 3/8" long
Blade is a smide under 2mm thick, so it slices extremely well

The bolster's mokume hasn't the patina to show off the layers of copper/nickel but it's starting and should be quite attractive once it's reached it's peak..

A nice knife for sure!
G2

 

[Dan Pierson]

Wow Gary! You're definitely a better photographer than I am I did get (too many) pics though -- they'll
be up once I narrow down the selection enough. Especially the way too many pictures of the smelt flames
and sparks. Those were just soooo cool!

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Looks like a lot of fun. Thanks guys for taking pictures for those of us would like to who can't be there.
I agree with Dan, great pics Gary. Do you do much photo manipulation after or are these straight from the camera?

 

[william barrett]

hi gary, those are awesome photos . I just wanted to say "thank you " for always being willing to help me and amswer my questions.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Dan and guys, you're too kind, appreciate it and Patrice, I do some editing in Lightroom but not much, the camera used works pretty well on it's own, a Canon 5D mk ii, nice solid camera to be sure. I crop for content and reduce in size for web viewing mostly. My photoshop skills needs a lot of work yet!
G2

And Bill, you're always welcome, keep a steady hand man!

 

[Mike Davis]

Great pictures! Will make it easy to remember the amazing weekend had by all! Now if i can just get rid of all the charcoal dust....

 

[deker]

Excellent photos as always you guys!

Gary, what do I have to do to talk you into sending me full size versions of the smelter fire pics? Yes, I know they're huge, but I have two very nice 24" monitors on my desk at work that NEED those pictures as backgrounds....

-d