BlacksmitHER Radio

This is the monthly Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I'll be telling you about classes and events happening in August 2018.

If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to [email protected] and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

OK, I'll go in Alphabetic order here:

This week I've got Bob Bergman from Blanchardville Wisconsin. He bought an old blacksmith shop 50 years ago in Postville, Wisconsin. He talks about his beginnings and traveling through Europe working and learning at 15 different shops over 2 months. He tells us the history behind the Postville Blacksmith shop which started in 1856.

What We Talked About

• Bob started working in an advertising agency after college and immediately knew that business suit and desk were not for him!
• He then accepted a production assistant job for a feature film, it was 1968, the spring Martin Luther King was murdered. NYC was becoming electrified, amped up, so Bob decided to move out of state and look for land in Wisconsin.
• After purchasing 4 acres and a house, his realtor took him by an old but still operating blacksmith shop that was for sale. He met the 80-year-old blacksmith, who was the second owner of the business, and decided to purchase the business from him for $500 (the building, the tools, the land)! The first owner opened the shop in 1856.
• Bob learned his basic blacksmith skills from a local country blacksmith, Thomas Kammerude, who lived up the road from Bob's newly purchased shop.
• In 1976, Bob attended one of the first ABANA blacksmith conferences in Carbondale, Illinois. He met Francis Whitaker at this conference and he wanted to learn more from him, so Francis told him he had to take a class first at the John C Campbell folk school. Bob signed up long with Clay Spencer, Ray Nager, Glenn Gilmore, Jim Batson and more. They would all continue to take master classes from Francis for the next few years.
• Bob continued to travel through the US and apprentice with working blacksmiths during his slow winters. In 1985 he also traveled through Europe, doing a journeyman type program over 2 months, working in 12 to 15 different shops in different countries.
• In the late 1990's he expanded the shop by adding 4000 sq ft building and a 3000 sq ft machine shop to complete bigger jobs.
• After 50 years in business, Bob is ready for retirement and looking for a buyer for the business, shop, tools and land. If you are interested in more details, you can contact Bob here, (608) 527-2494 or email [email protected].
• One "Golden Client" hired Bob to do a large amount of architectural work at his private home in Ridgeway CO, most of that work has been documented in the book called "Heritage in Iron".

Guest Links

• Postville Blacksmith Shop: https://www.postvilleblacksmith.com/
• Old World Anvils: oldworldanvils.com
• The KA75 Striking Hammer: ka75.com
• Heritage in Iron book: https://bluemoonpress.org/index.php/heritage-in-iron.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
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• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

This is the monthly Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I'll be telling you about classes and events happening in July 2018.

If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to [email protected] and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

OK, I'll go in Alphabetic order here:

This is the monthly Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I'll be telling you about classes and events happening in June 2018.

This is the monthly Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I'll be telling you about classes and events happening in May 2018.

If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to [email protected] and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

I talk to a couple of demonstrators while they were demonstrating at events this past weekend.

First I talk with Payne Anne Chassen and Sylvia Andrassy, they are in Pampano Beach, Florida for the FABA SE Regional meet. The meet was held at the Guild, a non-profit folk art school started by Shaun Williams and Sylvia Andrassy. Payne was demonstrating a corner shelf with antique glass bulbs incorporated into the design.

Then I talk to Dennis Dusek who was demonstrating garden tools at the Weaverville Hammer-in, this is held at the Jake Jackson Museum Weaverville, California. He walked around and spoke with the other demonstrators that were there, Monica Coyne, Brett Moten, Dan Perkins, Victoria Ritter and Mark Aspery.

Links:

Facebook page for FABA SE

Jake Jackson Website

This week I've got the CBA Spring Conference organizers, the crew that has dedicated countless volunteer hours of their time planning and scheduling the CBA 40th Anniversary Spring Conference coming up April 12 – 14 in Placerville, CA. The crew consists of Dennis Dusek, the conference chair, aka the big cheese, Dan Perkins, who is the CBA Education director, Victoria Ritter who is in charge of the volunteers and vendors, and Paul Boulay, the Vice President of the CBA. We talk about what it takes to host an event of this size and what to expect during the conference.

And they happen to be the sponsor for today's episode. There is still time to get the early bird discount of $165 for all 3 days if you register before March 22nd. The demonstrator line-up is:

Zeevik Gottlieb, Lynda Metcalfe, Ellen Durkan, Haley Woodword, Colby Brinkman, David Lisch, Mark Aspery, Darryl Nelson and Paul Boulay.

To register, head over to www.calsmith.org and click on the events tab for the online registration button.

What We Talked About

• Dennis tells us about his past conferences that he has organized, the last one was in 2013 with an attendance of around 400 people.
• The core group of 4, Dennis, Paul, Dan and Victoria, meet weekly to go through a list of things that need attention. This happens for eight months ahead of the conference.
• Each person has a role; Paul Boulay works with the budget and the big picture ideas with Dennis, Victoria Ritter works with organizing the groups of vendors, volunteers and registration people, and Dan Perkins is the education site manager, helping with the layout of the venue and gathering/installing all of the equipment for the demonstrators and teaching tents.
• CBA will be purchasing 10 anvils, so they can have 10 forging stations at the conference for the attendees to use.
• We talk about the forging contests that will be held each night of the conference; forging a cube, forge anything from a railroad spike and a wearable art forged piece.

Guest Links

• Register for the conference - calsmith.org

This is the Blacksmith Buzz Bulletin. Where you get the low-down about upcoming classes and events that are happening in the following month, though this month I'll be telling you about classes and events happening in April 2018. I've got a lot of schools and events lined up for the rest of the year coming at you every month.

If you have an event or class you would like to submit, send an email to [email protected] and I will send you the details I need for the press release.

Today I'm going to share a few tips and tricks I've found in various blacksmith association newsletters. I'm not sure how many of you are ABANA members and receive the Hammers Blow quarterly Journal, I do and The current editor is, Dan Nauman, wrote a small article titled Picture That about photography, mainly photographing your work. In my local blacksmith association newsletter, Forge Facts from the Rocky Mountain Smiths, I saw a great tip on riveting I want to share which came from Dorothy Stiegler, a blacksmith out of California. And then from the Appalachian Blacksmiths Association newsletter of December 2012, there was a quick snippet about penetrating oils and testing done on frozen, rusted nuts on bolts.

What We Talked About

• Hammer's Blow, Volume 26 #1 article written by Dan Nauman titled "Picture That". This addresses the importance of having good portfolio pictures early on in your career, even if you are a hobbyist.
• Riveting tips from Dorothy Steigler
• Penetrating Oils test from the Appalachian Blacksmiths Association newsletter of December 2012

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor - Eureka Springs School of the Arts, http://essa-art.org/ or give them a call (479) 253-5384.

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!

Guest Intro paragraph

This week I've got Michael Whipps from Melbourne Australia, btw he goes by Whipps. He's a metal worker who makes custom spherical firepits with his wife in Australia and he started blacksmithing about 6 months ago. The reason I have him on today is to talk about his new podcast "Metal Sculpture Show". I think I've mentioned this before to you guys, I started a podcast network called The Burn Network, basically, it's a collection of metalworking podcasts. The reason I started it was to encourage other blacksmith's or metal workers to start their own podcasts and I would help them get started, show them the ropes of the podcast tech world, provide the hosting and continued support. To have a searchable network that offers relevant and different podcasts to our community of metal workers. So, Whipps contacted me 7 months ago about wanting to start a podcast on the network and have it be about metal art sculpture. We worked through the details of how this is a huge time consumer while being a labor of love for fellow artists, the equipment to work with, recording software, techniques of being a host of a show, etc and now, here we are talking about his podcast and his first 4 episodes that were just released a few days ago!

If anyone is interested in listening to the "master feed" of the Burn Network, just search for The Burn Network in your podcast apps, iTunes, Spotify and online at www.theburnnetwork.com. If anyone is interested in starting a podcast and wants to know more info on what it takes, drop me a line at [email protected].

What We Talked About

• Whips tells us why he wanted to start the podcast.
• The topic of making a living as an artist comes up and life/work balance vs money making
• Whipps describes his background that lead him to his metal working business called Whipps Designs, it involves mountain biking!
• He tells the story of buying his first anvil from a farmer who didn't want to sell it.

Guest Links

• Whipps Designs website - whippsdesigns.com.au
• Podcast website – metalsculptureshow.com
• Instagram - @metalsculptureshow
• And on Facebook

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

• telling your friends.
• sharing this episode using the social sharing buttons below.
• subscribing to the show and leaving a rating and review in iTunes. Not sure how? Just follow these simple steps here or watch the short video tutorial, http://youtu.be/rq4OCyRGjHc?list=UUH3MfNZLXlKgionAs6kMT_Q
• subscribing to the show in Stitcher, http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=54499&refid=stpr

Thanks so much for your support!