Steve Alford

Thanks for the links! Maybe I can get away for a bit one day. Thanks!

Going to be in Oak Island, NC, next week. May or may not have a half day or a day to myself while other folks are off doing incomprehensible things like cow pasture billiards or shoppe-ing. Wondering if anyone here knows of interesting museums, places where there's some admirable ironwork, or just generally things of interest to a blacksmith, bladesmith, general tinkerer? Natural history, ships, trains...? I've done a little googling without results. Quite possibly I'm not supposed to be looking for a way to get off the beach. ;) Thanks, Steve

I'll be rolling in probably on Wednesday. Gotta finish some auction items this weekend...

Hey, this has been here for a month or so and I just noticed! Usually don't scroll down far enough, I guess. Find something interesting to read right up top and then run out of time... anyway... I'm Steve, from Athens Forge. We had a great meeting Saturday. First time I can remember us meeting on Memorial Day weekend, but Saturday meetings are new for us too. Seems to be working. We had a dozen folks Saturday, which is down a little from the last few months, but then, it was the big weekend. Good bunch of trade items and good iron in the hat. May check in a little more often now that I know this is here! Steve

I really liked the ABS school through Texarkana college. I understand they offer those courses in a couple other locations now. They have hammer-ins in California - I saw that with a quick look at www.americanbladesmith.com. Steve

I have one and love it, but can't say that I've made anything with it that relates to blacksmithing. They way it worked for me, I got a SB9 lathe. Got it running easily because it was in pretty good shape. Got the SB shaper in a little worse shape. The lathe made a few parts for the shaper, mostly missing knobs and such. The shaper has also made some parts for the lathe. And both have made parts for an ongoing refurb of a Bridgeport clone. Sometimes people ask if I'm ever going to make anything... The thing I like about the shaper is the cost of tooling especially for jobs like dovetails and internal keyways. But that's what people always talk about as far as advantages of a shaper. My #1 reason for wanting and liking the shaper is just that I like it. I like to watch it work, the sound as it works, and I like the thought process of setting it up to do its thing. Steve