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Since my cloning experiments have failed, so far. I can not be in two places at once, so this weekend, I will be on the Maryland Eastern shore attending the MASA METALSMITH CONFERENCE not at the Steam Show. I am sure the crew doing the smelt will be taking some pictures. Also, one of our members has written an article for the Guild newsletter describing the smelt that took place at Blacksmith Days. Once that article is published, I will see about getting some of those pictures to post here. Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland

For some time now, the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland has been buying bulk coal for the membership, the blacksmith school and for the Carroll County Farm Museum's Historic Forge. For the last couple of years we have been getting SEWAL VEIN coal from West Virginia. (Best coal I have ever used) The draw back is that they will only sell by the semi load. The last delivery was 26 tons and we had to bag it by hand. We are experimenting with MOSHANNON coal from Madera Enterprises in Clearfield PA. They are offering the coal at $180 a ton, loose at their location; $200 a ton, loose, delivered to Westminster, MD; $220 a ton, bagged, delivered to Westminster. We sell the bagged coal to Guild members for $7 per 50 pounds and $10 per 50 pounds to non-members. Initial tests of the MOSHANNON coal show it to be a very good blacksmithing coal, almost as good as SEWAL. The Guild has decided to go ahead with an initial purchase of 7 tons of bagged coal to do more extensive evaluation. Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland

That's a good idea, I will pass it along to the crew that is doing the smelt.

Fire scale is a kissing cousin to rust. Both are iron oxides, slightly different chemical formulae. When the orange hot steel comes in contact with the oxygen in the air, the scale forms. If your gas forge is running lean/oxidizing (less gas) more scale is formed. If the gas forge is running rich (more gas) less scale will form. In the coal forge, if you push your steel down towards the bottom of the fire pot, you will get more scale as the oxygen at the bottom of the fire pot has not yet been consumed by the burning coke.

The bloom that was created during Blacksmith Days, weighed about 20 pounds. Hopefully, they will get a equal size or larger bloom during the Steam Show. The current plan is to cut the bloom into pieces and either auction or raffel off the pieces at the September Guild meeting, (September 27th at the Farm Museum.) In any case, once the bloom is removed from the furnace, the pieces will need a LOT of heavy hammering to consolidate the spongey bloom in wrought iron.

As part of the Mason-Dixon Historical Society's 36th Annual Steam and Gas Round Up, the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland plans to do an iron smelt. This will be a repeat of the process shown to us by the Colonial Williamsburg blacksmiths during this past May's Blacksmith Days. The iron smelt will be on Saturday, 12 September, 2009. The Guild will have a tent set up in the center of the grounds. If everything goes according to plan they will start the pre-heat at about 9am and start charging the furnace at about 10 or 10:30am. Based on what happened in May we estimate that it will take about 4-5 hours before the bloom is ready to be pulled from the furnace. We are not exactly sure what we will do if it rains. The Steam and Gas Round Up will take place at the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 S. Center St, Westminster MD. Most likely parking will be at the adjacent Ag Center with a shuttle carrying people back and forth between the Farm Museum and the parking area. As you approach the Farm Museum, follow the signs for parking. For this event, parking on the Farm Museum grounds itself will be restricted to handicapped and

Also, Walter VanAlstine will be demonstrating casting of brass and aluminum.

WagonMaster, The Mid-Atlantic Smiths Association is hosting its Annual Metalsmithng Conference in Easton, on Maryland's Eastern Shore the weekend of 12-13 September. This would be an opportunity for your friend to meet blacksmiths from the Delmarva Peninsula. Details should be on the MASA home page which UNICORN FORGE posted above. Also, there is a blacksmith club in the Salisbury MD area. They meet at the Furnace Town Historic Site, on Rt 12 between Salisbury and Snow Hill. They have an annual Hammer-In in March. They are the Furnace Town Blacksmithing Guild. Furnace Town Heritage Museum - Blacksmith Shop - Snow Hill, MD

The monthly meeting of the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland will be Sunday Aug. 16th on the grounds of the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 S. Center St Westminster, MD. The meeting starts at 9am and will run until about 4pm Pot luck lunch at noon, followed by the annual Ice-Cream Freeze-Off (homemade ice-cream) Business meeting at 1pm Trade item this month is an ice-cream scoop.

At this year's BGCM Blacksmith Days, this past May, 2 blacksmiths from Colonial Williamsburg demnstrated making iron. It took them about 4-5 hours and they ended up with a 20 pound bloom of iron. After the iron was smelted, they cut it into smaller pieces and spent a lot of time consolidating the bloom. That was an awful lot of really heavy hammering to turn the sponge like bloom into bar stock. Then on Saturday and Sunday, they made things out of the resulting iron. The bloomery was a piece of chimmney tile slathered with refractory cement. The big expense was the charcoal, you go through an awful lot of charcoal to make the iron. An awful lot of work to make just a little bit of iron.

Well, I am a little late this month. The July meeting of the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland is this Sunday, 19 July, 2009. The trade items is a BBQ utensil: fork, spatula, tongs, etc. Facility opens up at 9 am. Pot luck lunch at noon. followed by Iron in the Hat raffle. Business meeting starts at 1pm We should be there until about 4pm. Something to look forward to: August meeting: Sunday 16 Aug, 2009. Our annual ICECREAM FREEZE-OFF. Members bring the fixings and make home-made icecream at the meeting. Everybody gets a taste and then vote whose icecream is best.

BS-101, Beginner's blacksmithin classes are offered on a regular basis. There is another class scheduled for 22-23 Aug 2009. There should be 1 or 2 additional classes in late fall early winter, but they have not been scheduled yet. The club meets at the Farm Museum every month except December (Christmas party). If you are interested, you can keep track of upcoming classes and meeting dates by going to our web page Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland

Dave W. You just missed the June Monthly meeting of the Blacksmith Guild of Central MD, it was this past Sunday. The July meeting is Sunday July 19th. Meetings start at 9am and run through the day. Stop by and you could get to see some coal forges in action and pick up some tips on fire management. Meetings take place at the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 S. Center St Westminster, MD.

The monthly meeting of the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland will be Sunday June 28th on the grounds of the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 S. Center St Westminster, MD. The meeting starts at 9am and will run until about 4pm Pot luck lunch at noon Business meeting at 1pm Trade item this month is something made from recycled material (horseshooe, rr spike, rebar, etc.)

The Artist-Blacksmith Quarterly, written and published by George Dixon is an outstanding (IMHO) resource if you are into very traditional style blacksmithing, heavy on repousse', etc. George was a head blacksmith for the Yellin Blacksmith shop in Philadelphia. So if you are a fan of Samuel Yellin style of iron work this magazine is for you. Each quarterly issue has about 20 pages. He includes a lot of tool making: punches, chisels, rivet sets, swages, etc. I just recently received the #4 issue for 2008. George had fallen behind in publication due to personal issues. He said that a renewal notice for 2009 (which is Volume 10) would be coming out this summer. George is the author of "A Blacksmith's Craft: The Legacy of Francis Whitaker, Volume 1". Part of what is holding up The Artist-Blacksmith Quarterly is that George is trying to finish up Volume 2 of the Whitaker series.

This weekend is BGCM's annual Hammer-In on the grounds of the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster MD. On Friday, smiths from Colonial Williamsburg will be doing an iron smelt. If everything goes smoothly they should be pulling out the bloom in the late afternoon. Then on Saturday and Sunday, they will be making something from the iron bloom. Our other featured demonstrator is an ABS Master Bladesmith, J. Neilson. We will be raffeling off one of his knives. Also in the raffel is an incredibly awesome hand made BBQ grill that looks like a dragon lying on top of a pirate chest. (pictures on webpage) Late Saturday afternoon, there will be an auction of hand forged iron work. More details at the Guilds web page: Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland (click on the picture of the knife on the home page to get to the Blacksmith Days page.)

Reb, OK, will do. As of now, Bill Clemens will be teaching the July 25/26 BS-101 class and I will be teaching the one, Aug 22/23. Albin Drzewianowski, BGCM Blacksmith School Admin.

The Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland in conjunction with the Carroll County Farm Museum offers a variety of blacksmith classes. Classes are limited to 8 students. Each student has his/her own coal forge, 75 kilo double horned anvil and leg vise. For the beginners classes all tooling is supplied. For the intermediate classes, the student is expected to be familiar with fire management in a coal forge and the basic blacksmith forging skills: drawing out, upsetting, punching, bending, twisting. The Carroll County Farm Museum is located at 500 S. Center St. Westminster, MD. We are about 35 miles WNW of Baltimore MD. With 2 exceptions (BS-101/Wednesday Nights, and SUPER BS-101) all classes are a Saturday/Sunday, running from 9am to 5pm. 30-31 May, 2009 BS-101 Beginner's Blacksmithing class Instructor: Ray Neubauer 25/26 July, 2009 BS-101 Beginner's Blacksmithing class Instructor: TBA 22/23 Aug, 2009 BS-101 Beginner's Blacksmithing class Instructor: TBA 31 Oct/1 Nov, 2009 BS-202Follow up to BS-101 class. Emphasis on tool making: punches, tongs, etc. Instructor: Ray Neubauer 21/22 Nov, 2009 Beginner's Knifemaking ClassCovers the basics of forging out a blade and making handles Instructor: Walter VanAlstine To sign up for classes, contact Emma Beaver at the Farm Museum, 410-386-3886. Emma usually works, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. You can keep up to date on the status of upcoming classes by going to the BGCM web site: Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland and clicking on the CLASSES button in the upper right. If you have any questions about the blacksmith school or the classes, you can contact me at: SchoolAdmin@bgcmonline.org Albin Drzewianowski, BGCM Blacksmith School Admin.

I have been the occasional visitor here, now and then. Since you all now have a BGCM forum, I figured it was time to get official and join up.