primtechsmith

In the span of just a few days we have already had 6 people express interest and get their names on the class listing. This means 6(as of right now) seats are still open. Do not hessitate. At this price these open seats will not last. I will also run a "waiting list" just in case someone can not attend the class you can still have a chance...please let me know ASAP. We would love to have you as part of this special offering, and great learning experience! Peyton Anderson Yesteryear School Representative yesteryearschool@gmail.com 434.390.6203

Maybe we should be grabbing for a box of tissues to all those who donated their anvils, post vices, hand crank drill presses, tongs, hammers, etc to the war effort steel drives instead...at least those rusting away are still holding memories or some type of purpose for the owners. Besides...I would rather have a new one. Peyton

I talked to Clay last night and he is still figuring out what his demo will be. Here is what he is thinking: 1. Grille sample using collaring and a scroll piece with a flower center piece 2. RR Spike wizard head into a door knocker 3. Dogwood flower blossoms He is still thinking it all through. He is preparing for the Blade Symposium this weekend and is super busy right now. Peyton

Here is Mark and Mindy's website: Flood Plain Forge - Mark & Mindy Gardner Peyton

This price is the lowest I think you will ever see for a class with such amazing instructors and artist smiths. Mindy had an ornament she made chosen to reside on the Christmas Tree in the White House recently. They will also have their Treadle Hammers for sale, and tool sets for sale as well. Weston's Motel is less than a mile up the road. It is around $45 USD a night and there is a good restaurant that serves great meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). It is a perfect place. You do not have to drive far for rest and food. It is all in sight from the school. I am beginning to get some interest in these empty spots I still have open. DON NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! This is a once in a lifetime shot to take a 500+ dollar class for less than half the price, but still 100% the quality! Peyton yesteryearschool@gmail.com

Well. The next meeting is fast approaching and we are gearing up for a really cool day with a lot of things in store for those in attendance. SATURDAY APRIL 19th 2008 Where: Yesteryear Forge 15421 Five Forks Rd. Amelia VA 23002 Time: 10am-3pm Lunch: provided (suggested $5 donation) Demonstrator: CLAY SPENCER ~Next Meeting~ TRADE ITEM: "Something in Bloom" Forge anything with a flower on it, or just a flower on it's own to trade with a fellow smith! Reminders: IRON IN THE HAT!!!!!!!!!!!! and bring a chair! Directions: From 360 EAST or WEST Turn across from GOODMAN TRUCK AND TRACTOR onto business 360. Go to your first road on your right and TURN RIGHT. Continue on to the stop sign. Go through that intersection and proceed approx. 2 miles. The forge is on the right. There is a "Yesteryear Forge" sign in the front yard. Parking is behind the forge. The forge is behind the house... ****MAPQUEST WILL GET YOU EXTREMELY LOST***** use them at your own risk! RSVP to Peyton Anderson: president@blacksmithguildofva.com or call 434.390.6203 NEW HOTEL IN AMELIA FOR THOSE "ROAD TRIP BLACKSMITHS"!!!!!! Here is the number: 804-561-4220 This is where we put up the demonstrators for the events. It is only about 5 miles from Yesteryear Forge on 360. ANYONE AND EVERYONE IS ALWAYS WELCOME WHETHER YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE GUILD OR NOT. WE ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE BLACKSMITHING COMMUNITY AND THAT IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS!!! Hope to see you there. Peyton

Yesteryear School of Blacksmithing is seperate from the guild. And yes all are always welcome to ANY and all class offerings. The only chance we have to learn something new is to try. And trying is the first step towards success! Gerald. There will be more offerings coming very soon!!! Peyton

Chris. We are hard at work preparing a course for the end of July. This is still in the works and will be announced very soon. There will be a website soon as well with a full listing of class offerings. We wanted to get the word out as soon as possible for everyone to make plans to attend. ....Chris just play sick for a week! Besides this is school too....just a different type! :-) Peyton

I am pleased to announce the formation of a new Blacksmithing School here on iforgiron! What better place to make an exclusive announcement than on such a top quality forum that is focused on the education and furthering of this wonderful trade!!! Yesteryear School of Blacksmithing

Travis: Yeah this one ran on the webcast...it was limited room in the "webcast room", we are still waiting on word on how to accomplish moving this to a bigger arena. There are a couple of options and we are waiting for word from one individual source before we go back to the original people and request more room....I am hoping this can get done before the next meeting with Clay Spencer demonstrating... GOATMAN: I would say that the reasoning behind 4 welds instead of 2 is because it is more impressive in a demo... Peyton

I made this for Mike a few years back for Christmas. It is all 3/8" aluminum. It is all cut out on a waterjet. Anvil is Black anodized Letters are Gold anodized I ran a couple of waterjet machines, and did some editing for a sign company. I did all the cutting, anodizing, and finishing during lunch breaks for a week or so. It was a good experience... Peyton

He used regular 20 mule team borax, and whatever they call the borax they evaporate the moisture out of...too scientific of a name to remember or spell at the moment! LOL! Peyton

This may help with my above attempt at describing it....the numbers go with the welds listed above... Peyton

Forge welds are as follows: Step 1: make the leaf ends on two pieces of 3/8" round. Step 2: Cut 3/4 of the way through each bar back from the leaves. Step 3: FORGE WELD(1 and 2) each bar to itself where they are folded over. Step 4: FORGE WELD(3) The two bars together. Step 5: Bend the now forge welded bar around and then FORGE WELD(4) the piece together. Step 6: Make the ring as round as possible, and tweek your inner scrolls. :-) Peyton

Here is one of the items Chris Winterstein demonstrated at our last guild meeting. Chris did a great job not only describing the techniques in forging this but also the theory behind the use of negtive space and options in layout. It has 4 forge welds in it, 9" dia., and the material is 3/8" round. I can see why Yellin has contracted him, and how is knowledge of the trade makes him suitable for the ABANA president position. It was a really great day. Wish you all could have been there! Photos are by guild member: Steve LaPaugh Peyton

Wow! What a great day for a demo this past Saturday the 15th! The weather was perfect, Chris' demo was outstanding, and the company of smiths there was 1st class. Chris went on beyond the usual 3:30 stopping mark...going on until after 5 o'clock. Chris showed himself to be a great smith and orator. His sense of humor and theory on smithing really made the day great. The Iron in the Hat did its job too making it possible to begin setting up for CLAY SPENCER next month. Thanks to everyone who was there and out there watching the webcam! I am so lucky to be part of such an active and top of the line guild. My hat goes off to all of you members out there whose participation keep this thing at the quality level we are on! ..."Our future is so bright I gotta wear shades!" Peyton

Larry. What I tend to do with my wall hooks and S hooks is use the heat to your advantage to descale the material. Light finishing hammer blows at a gray heat will knock off a lot of the scale and having a hand wire brush handy to run over it a few times helps too. Then I just throw them all on the floor and let them cool on their own. I did the "quench before drilling" once. Mike came over and told me that noise was not good...and why. The why is always important! The next day he bought a Drill Doctor to sharpen the drill bits and a new lesson was formed....reading calipers to correctly put all the drill bits back in their proper places after sharpening them. Like Mike tells me: "Experience is a wonderful thing." :-) Peyton

Outstanding!....your firsts are better than my hopeful aspirations! Peyton

Thanks for the update Jr. ...Will still be sending up some more kneemail....just to get everything back to normal for y'all very soon. Hang in there buddy. Peyton

~Next Meeting~ SATURDAY MARCH. 15th 2008 Where: Yesteryear Forge 15421 Five Forks Rd. Amelia VA 23002 Time: 10am-3pm Lunch: BBQ for a suggested $5 donation to help offset the costs. Demonstrator: CHRIS WINTERSTEIN of Dirt Circus Iron Works, Yellin Ironworks, and current President of ABANA!!!!!! Click here for a look at some of his work: [ABANA] Chris Winterstein The first photo shown will be one of the things he will be demonstrating. It is a 3 piece forge welded trivet. Reminders: IRON IN THE HAT!!!!!!!!!!!! and bring a chair! Directions: From 360 EAST or WEST Turn across from GOODMAN TRUCK AND TRACTOR onto business 360. Go to your first road on your right and TURN RIGHT. Continue on to the stop sign. Go through that intersection and proceed approx. 2 miles. The forge is on the right. There is a "Yesteryear Forge" sign in the front yard. Parking is behind the forge. The forge is behind the house... ****MAPQUEST WILL GET YOU EXTREMELY LOST***** use them at your own risk! RSVP to Peyton Anderson: president@blacksmithguildofva.com NEW HOTEL IN AMELIA FOR THOSE "ROAD TRIP BLACKSMITHS"!!!!!! Here is the number: 804-561-4220 This is where we put up the demonstrators for the events. It is only about 5 miles from Yesteryear Forge on 360. YOU CAN ALSO RSVP BY REPLYNG TO THIS THREAD!!!!!!! Hope to see y'all there Peyton

Negative Space....to me... I am in now way an artist or consider myself as someone who can understand the motives of a lot of artwork out there. That being said....here is how I think of negative space. For a while I was really into photography and actually worked at a photolab at Winn-Dixie in high school. I would sometimes run several hundred photos a night and would see them as the original negative and as the actual photo. To me...the two were completely different to me. It was cool to see the negative images compared to the actual and what seemed to be left out of each. I sometimes see the same thing in iron work today. It has already been said the open space in a scroll, or the hollow spaces in sculpture, etc... For me the most important part of negative space is its role in symmetry. Having one equal or compliment the other. There is nothing worse than seeing two scrolls on a piece that are not identical... just how I see it.. Peyton

Good to see you over here Bill!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peyton

Thanks Aaron and Jeremy....and all the others who popped in to try it out. Adam is super sharp when it comes to figuring this stuff out....I did not expect him to come due to some family obligations but I was really happy to see him. I don't think it would have gone with out him. He is a good Technical Director! Big thanks to everyone who was giving him feedback during the "show". He was able to tweek everything and get it bettter. We will try it all again next month on the 15th with Chris Winterstein demonstrating....we are working now to test out increasing the room size to about 30...When it gets closer I will throw the link and times out for everyone! Thanks again. It is really exciting to be involved with such a knowledgable group of smiths and willing participants to "boldly go where no guild has gone before"... Credit also needs to go to Mike Tanner. This was his idea...and Adam's determination to make it all work has been a real blessing! Thanks! Peyton