- Joined
- Aug 9, 2000
- Messages
- 374
The Moran Hammer-In last weekend was well attended. Houston Price commented to me this was the best attended meet the ABS had held.
The most awesome thing I saw there was Larry Harley's arms. Don't mess with Larry. I saw Larry, most of the weekend at the forge site, teaching several people how to forge.
If you have never been to a hammer-in, you should try to attend one soon. Starting at 8:00 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings there were four different sites, on the grounds, presenting classes and demonstrations by Moran, Keeslar, Hendrickson, Sentz, Eden, Fisk, Batson, Gaston, Neely and Szilaski.
A very interesting lecture was held by B.R. Hughes, Johnny Perry, Greg Neely and Houston Price about ABS Knife Judging. Those guys are tough judges, particularly on the Mastersmiths. You have to be real good to make your Mastersmith stamp.
On Friday there were four shop tours to Bill Moran's shop. It was worth attending to experience Bill's guided tour of his shop and watching him forge.
Saturday afternoon there was a knife show from 1-4:00 pm and an auction from 4-6:00 pm. I bought a great Bill Moran Kukri, at the show, that was carried in Vietnam in 1967.
On Friday night, Nancy and Jay Hendrickson, had everyone for a feast in their back yard. Their daughter, Shari, decorated and made everything look great and flow smoothly. Great food with a group of great people.
Bill Compton(in a wheel chair) unloaded a pickup truck load of folding chairs faster than Shari, Janie and myself could carry them away.
These three smiths passed their physical testing for their stamps. Mastersmith stamp applicant Dough Noreen and Journeyman applicants Tom Eden and Mace Vitale. This test is a lot of fun to watch. The applicant must chop two 2X4's completely in two pieces, cut a pretty good size free hanging rope in two with one swing and the knife must still shave hair from his arm without sharpening. You probably think that is enough, but nooooo!!! They then clamp the knife in a vise and bend it to a 90 degree bend. It must not break or fracture.
These three fellows still have to have five knives pass inspection before they get their stamps.
Jay and Nancy Hendrickson did a great job having name tags and all the other things that makes something like this flow smoothly.
Jim Batson set up the demonstrations and lectures. Jan DuBois ran the entry tent and registration.
Pascal Mangenot was there from France, he writes for the French knife magazine "la Passion des Couteaux" and is a knife maker himself. He took over 400 pictures of knives over the weekend. It was truly a delight meeting him as he has a great passion for knives. I showed him a Scagel knife and he had Janie take his picture with knife in his hand.
My apology to anyone I left out.
Best regards,
Rhett Stidham
The most awesome thing I saw there was Larry Harley's arms. Don't mess with Larry. I saw Larry, most of the weekend at the forge site, teaching several people how to forge.
If you have never been to a hammer-in, you should try to attend one soon. Starting at 8:00 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings there were four different sites, on the grounds, presenting classes and demonstrations by Moran, Keeslar, Hendrickson, Sentz, Eden, Fisk, Batson, Gaston, Neely and Szilaski.
A very interesting lecture was held by B.R. Hughes, Johnny Perry, Greg Neely and Houston Price about ABS Knife Judging. Those guys are tough judges, particularly on the Mastersmiths. You have to be real good to make your Mastersmith stamp.
On Friday there were four shop tours to Bill Moran's shop. It was worth attending to experience Bill's guided tour of his shop and watching him forge.
Saturday afternoon there was a knife show from 1-4:00 pm and an auction from 4-6:00 pm. I bought a great Bill Moran Kukri, at the show, that was carried in Vietnam in 1967.
On Friday night, Nancy and Jay Hendrickson, had everyone for a feast in their back yard. Their daughter, Shari, decorated and made everything look great and flow smoothly. Great food with a group of great people.
Bill Compton(in a wheel chair) unloaded a pickup truck load of folding chairs faster than Shari, Janie and myself could carry them away.
These three smiths passed their physical testing for their stamps. Mastersmith stamp applicant Dough Noreen and Journeyman applicants Tom Eden and Mace Vitale. This test is a lot of fun to watch. The applicant must chop two 2X4's completely in two pieces, cut a pretty good size free hanging rope in two with one swing and the knife must still shave hair from his arm without sharpening. You probably think that is enough, but nooooo!!! They then clamp the knife in a vise and bend it to a 90 degree bend. It must not break or fracture.
These three fellows still have to have five knives pass inspection before they get their stamps.
Jay and Nancy Hendrickson did a great job having name tags and all the other things that makes something like this flow smoothly.
Jim Batson set up the demonstrations and lectures. Jan DuBois ran the entry tent and registration.
Pascal Mangenot was there from France, he writes for the French knife magazine "la Passion des Couteaux" and is a knife maker himself. He took over 400 pictures of knives over the weekend. It was truly a delight meeting him as he has a great passion for knives. I showed him a Scagel knife and he had Janie take his picture with knife in his hand.
My apology to anyone I left out.
Best regards,
Rhett Stidham
