Are there many members here who live in Florida? I am not involved in metalwork but it has always been of interest to me. I stumbled onto your forum while searching for fish gigs on google. I came across this post by the member cooter:

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/what-ar-wear-plate-1178/

It looks like he has not posted in quite awhile. The gigs he shows are far superior to the ones I buy from BM spears and I wanted to ask him if he would be willing to sell me one. I was not aware that blacksmithing still had such a following and I have only seen an operating smith once in my life. That was years ago at a boy scouts event in southern Florida. The smith there made all kinds of tools and traps knives etc on order. Unfortunately I have never been able to remember the name of the the town where this smith was and I'm not sure they would still be there after all these years anyway.

Here are a couple of contacts with a guild in the Florida Area.

FLORIDA ARTIST BLACKSMITH ASSOCIATION
Pres: Bill Robertson
5079 Sundance Lane
Tallahassee, FL 32309
(850) 668-2876
[email protected]

Ed:Steve Bloom
PO Box 760
Archer, FL 32618
(352) 528-6508
[email protected]

Florida Artist Blacksmith Association


Affiliate Liaison Rep.
Bill Roberts -Ornamental Metalsmith
Custom Design Metal Arts
3740 NE 40th PL. Ste. D
Ocala, FL 34479
Custom Design Metal Arts Studio - Bill Roberts, Ornamental Metalsmith. Ocala, Marion County, FLORIDA

Hope these help.

If you are in Northern Florida or the panhandle, GA. or Alabama might be able to help.

I live in Crawfordville Florida, about 20 miles south of Tallahassee. There are a number of smiths around here.
Hope this helps

Welcome to the site cityfall. I live in Tampa. West Central Fla. Do contact those mentioned by civilwarblacksmith. There may not be as many of us in Fla as there are in other states, but we are around. By the way. You didn't mention where you are from. ??

I'm in Ocala, FL. Kind of centrally located in the state.
FABA has a meeting every SAT. in different parts of the state. You can find info at the site:
Florida Artist Blacksmith Association
SO.......no matter where you live in FL there is a meeting once a month. And you don't have to be a member to attend.
welcome to the forum.

Thanks for all of the info everyone. I am located in Gainesville FL so I am very close to you ornametal. I was able to find out the location of the blacksmith I saw years ago. They are located on the Fort Wilderness campground in FT Meade Florida. I could not find out any other info but they are listed on the current map for the campground so apparently they are still there.