Well I'm off to Quad-State after work today---by way of several sets of kids and grand kids so I won't get there till Wednesday or Thursday.

Anyone else going?

(By a stroke of luck my disreputable red hat turned up---even more disreputable than before!)

I'm leaving Thurs. after work with my Father and son this year. Looking forward to a fun and educational weekend. We'll be camping again. I'll look for the hat.

-Derek

Friday, given good weather, I'll be wearing lederhosen and an aloha shirt in honour of Paw Paw Wilson and R.A.H. (Glory Road)---along with the very disreputable red hat.

Y'all have fun ........... WITHOUT ME! I'll just hold the fort down and work my tail off while y'all go off galavanting.




Ohhh wait........I FORGOT! I don't have a tail to work off! :D

Not this year. Still teaching. Maybe retirement soon, making next year a must.

Have fun out there.

oooh yes, I shall be there. Had too much fun last year not to come. This year, I'm coming down with my truck already overloaded, so I have to sell my stuff so I can go home with more. Als bringing a bit more funds to play with this year.

I'm going to the MN event this weekend, then three days later to QS. Looking forward to chatting with you again Thomas. btw-we figured out a savy way to flatter on angles using the flypress-I'll show you da plans next week there.

See you all there,

Aaron

My daughter and I will be there Thomas, leaving Friday morning from Cleveland area. Takes us about 4 hours to make the trip. All us I-forgers should have a meet and greet sometime Friday or Saturday evening... Maybe all get together by the Big Blu booth at a set time or something...

should be a good one this year...i'll be there

My wife and I will be there, arriving Friday night. Last year was our first, and I'm thinking this will become an annual pilgrimage for us. She doesn't do any blacksmithing, but still had a great time! See you all there.
Dave

Im hoping to head up Friday or Saturday, Hopefully Friday then maybe do the Ohio Renfair Saturday.

I plan to leave Wed morning arriving Wed night from MN about 12 hour drive
Nathan of the North is in New Jersy and planning on stopping in on the way home to MN
He is bringing Rich Waugh who is flying to the east coast from the Virgin Islands.
That is if they dont drink up all the rum on the way
I saw Aaron last weekend in MN. He was there to see Brian Brazeal and LDW
They impressed a lot of people with there forging skills as ussual.
I scored (stole at Auction) a horse head steak turner made from 1" square
Aaron sold an old church window anvil to a freind of mine.
It might be copied as a Peter Wrong anvil to add to my collection not that there is room in the van to haul them
Talked to Clifton Ralph two sundays ago. He said he was not going. Was planning on spending the $400 it would cost on cigaretts instead.
He did say he has reduced the price of his Power hammer DVDs to $125 for the 12 hours.
I better get to work so I can leave Wed.

Howdy Folks! Can you educate me on the location and nature of the Quad Sate event? :unsure:

Howdy Folks! Can you educate me on the location and nature of the Quad Sate event?

http://sofablacksmiths.org/conference2011/2011index.htm

Thanks dkunkler, I'll check that out!

That looks like fun, but a bit of a haul for me. Maybe someday though. :)

just got home from SOFA
840 miles one way
Great turnout, heard somewhere around 900 paid. spent much $ but a lot less than others.
A few LG hammers sold
Lots of anvils of all sizes and shapes
The big buyer from down south was not there so a lot less competition for anvils but a lot changed hands. I bought two T stake anvils from 1800s.
Biggest crowd of campers and tailgaters I have seen in the last 5 years.
Bill clemmens posted a few hundred photos on face book
Weather was a little wet but nice days also
Kim Thomas showed a couple hours of his photos from europe.
Unpacking so I can leave thursday for the next event

hey there 781, curious about your user name. you Air Force by any chance?

I was for 5 1/2 years a long time ago
781 is my radio call sign at work
780 stands for the town in this county

I see; the 781 is the AFTO series for aircraft maintenance documentation. That's why I asked. I thought perhaps it was a reference to a past career.

Cheers!

I took my 12 yr. old daughter to quadstate this year, and while I saw less demos than previous years, I think I had more fun this year. We entered the forging competition and finished our set of tongs, mind you while everyone else was "cheating" with sledgehammers, she and I finished with only a 4.6# and 2.2# hand hammers. I managed to drop the hammer on our touchmark as the 0-second was being called. It gave me a great feeling seeing all my fellow smiths coming up and congratulating her. She is so stoked on forging with me now, something I've been trying to inspire over the last year with little success. Guess it just took the encouragement of all you other great guys. All in all it was a great quadstate, and the kid has been jabbering away about "next year at SOFA".

I took my 9 year old and my Dad (68) as planned. We too had a great time and my son is all fired up about blacksmithing. Everyone at SOFA was so good to my son, treating him as a fellow blacksmith and bladesmith as though he had been doing it for 20 years. I never knew that making a few scaffold nail swords would put him on equal footing with bladesmiths of 20+ years experience, but that's the way you guys made him feel. I thank you for that.

Jason, watching that forging competition was a neat thing. If you cant feel encouraged by the cheering and support coming from that crowd, you won't ever feel it.

-Derek

Got back from Q-S this morning and still made it into work.

Had a great time, though it helped that I was prepared for *rain* as I think I saw as much rain at Q-S as we have had YTD here in NM.

NW MO is a pretty fair haul to Q-S; about 1/2 as far as we had to travel though. I hope to encourage more NM people to make it out there when I show off my "treasures" at the SWABA meeting at my forge Saturday.

I was really happy to see Aaron C there though I didn't get nearly enough time to talk with him; sounded like he was getting some really nice stuff there though. So much to do, so much to buy, (I bought 5 different refractories while I was there!), so little time, money, hauling space/weight!

Thomas

I'm glad to see you made it home safely Thomas. It was good to meet you in person for the first time.
I also had a great time, met a lot of great people, and hauled home some goodies.
It seems like time just flew by, and before you know it, it was sunday afternoon.