[ABS Webmaster]

3rd HEARTLAND

BLADESMITHING SYMPOSIUM & KNIFE SHOW

October 6 and 7, 2012

Offered by the American Bladesmith Society, Inc.

& Hosted by the Kansas Custom Knife Maker's Association

Location: Washburn Institute of Technology

5724 S. W. Huntoon Street, Topeka, Kansas 66604

DIRECTIONS: From the north, US 75 Highway, merge onto I-70 W/KS-4 W/US-40 W/US-75 S, Take exit 356 for Wanamaker Rd, Turn left onto SW Wanamaker Rd, Take the 3rd left onto SW Huntoon St, Drive .7 miles to destination, on left.

From the south, US 75 Highway, merge onto I-470 W, Take exit 1B for Wanamaker Rd, Turn right onto SW Wanamaker Rd, Take the 1st right onto SW Huntoon St, Drive .7 miles to destination, on left.

From the east,I-70, take exit 177 to merge onto I-470 W toward I-70/US-75/S Topeka, Take exit 1B for Wanamaker Rd, Turn right onto SW Wanamaker Rd, Take the 1st right onto SW Huntoon St Drive .7 miles to destination, on left.

From the west, I-70, take exit 355 to merge onto I-470 E/US-75 S, Take exit 1B for Huntoon St toward Wanamaker Rd, Turn left onto SW Huntoon St, Drive .8 miles to destination, on left.

Click above to play ABS YouTube video

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Schedule

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Friday

4 pm to 6 pm………………………Check in and Registration

6:30 pm – 9 pm..………………..Demonstrators Dinner, all attendees invited - Washburn Institute of Technology: Building - "A" in Conference Room

Saturday

8 am – 12 pm………………………Blade Forging and Demonstrations

1 pm – 3 pm………………………..Blade Forging Demonstrations

3 pm – 4 pm…………………………Knife Show

4 pm – 6 pm…………………………Auction, bring items for the auction, open to the public

7 pm - 9 pm............................Cutting Demonstration

Sunday

8 am – 12 pm………………………Blade Forging and Demonstrations

 2012 HEARTLAND SCHEDULE.pdf (9.94K)
Number of downloads: 103

---Bring examples of your work for the knife show & auction---

---Knife Show Table fee is included in the Registration Fee----

---Registered Tail Gate Sales & Suppliers are welcome—



For more information contact STEVE CULVER – 785/484-0146 or sculver@americanbladesmith.com

DEMONSTRATIONS

STEVE CULVER……………..Kerosene Forge Welding

BRION TOMBERLIN………..Clay tempering for a hamon line

DALE SCHAFER..................... Basic milling machine and lathe instruction

MIKE WILLIAMS…………….Blade finishing with cork and leather belts

JIM BATSON…………........….Basic Metallurgy

BR HUGHES………….........….Knifemaker Recognition in the Custom Knife business

DAVID SLOAN……….....…….Little Giant Trip-hammer, information and tips

Accommodations

Sleep Inn, 1024 SW Wanamaker Rd. Topeka, KS 66604, 785-228-2500- $69.99 + tax. Tell them that you are attending the Heartland Symposium to get the special rate.

Quality Inn, 1240 S. W. Wanamaker Rd., Topeka, KS 66604, 785-273-6969
Motel 6, 1224 Wanamaker Road SW, Topeka, Ks 66604, 785-273-9888
Country Inn & Suites, 6020 S. W. 10th Street, Topeka, Ks 66615, 800-596-2375
Super 8 Topeka/Wanamaker, 5968 W. W. 10th Ave., I-70/470 Exit Wanamaker Rd, Topeka, Ks 66604, 785-273-5100
Comfort Suites, 6213 S. W. 10th Street, Topeka, Ks 66615, 785-246-6777
Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, 901 S. W. Robinson Ave., Topeka, Ks 66606, 800-315-2621
Camping 7.1 miles from site: Capitol City KOA, 1949 S. W. 49th, Topeka, KS 66609, reservations, 800-562-4793
No overnight camping allowed on campus.

Cutting Demonstrations

Participate in the Cutting Demonstrations. Bring a sharp knife, 15” or less in length with a blade no longer than 10”. The handle should be pinned and have a safety lanyard.

Event Registration

The $65.00 Registration fee can be paid on the the ABS Website at Online or send a check to the ABS Office, PO Box 160, Grand Rapids, Ohio or contact the Cindy at 419-832-0400 and pay by credit card.

[ABS Webmaster]

This is the event Flyer for the 3rd Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium set for October 6th and 7th in Topeka, Kansas.

To download the flyer, Click:  3rd Heartland Flyer.pdf (39.62K)
Number of downloads: 83

[Sally Cassidy]

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at this year's Heartland Symposium. I'll be handling the registration desk and on site registration will begin on Friday, October 5th from 4 to 6 PM at the Washburn Institute of Technology, before the Demonstator's dinner. You can also register on Saturday before the demonstrations begin.

I encourage you to pre-register at the ABS Store at www.americanbladesmith.com, Click: Event Registration. This will speed up your registration process at the Hammer-In.

Cindy will be sending a limited number of items from the ABS Store for the event, so if there is anything from the Store that you want brought to the Heartland, to avoid shipping costs, you will need to let Cindy know at least a week in advance.

If you are sure that you want an event T-shirt please let Cindy at cindy@americanbladesmith.com know the size you want so you are sure to have it reserved. This year the knives of Steve Culver, Jim Batson and Brion Tomberlin will be featured. We try not to order too many so we don't have dated shirts left over, so let Cindy know the size and quantity as soon as you can and we will do our best to have them. We don't order small, medium or 4x unless we have an advance order for them.

I will see you in Topeka for another great Heartland Hammer-In!

Sally Gauvin Cassidy
sally@americanbladesmith.com

[Steve Culver]

I looking forward to this year's Heartland Symposium. We've got some great demos lined up. Should be a lot of good learning's to be had.

My demonstration is listed in the event flyer as "Forge Welding with Kerosene". As a weld with kerosene is a pretty quick demonstration, I expected to have to add something to the demo to fill the two hour demo time. Due to a project that I have been working on, I have been doing a lot of research and testing on forge welding. I've come up with some really interesting results; plus, a lot more questions about what we really understand about forge welding.

I'm going to put together some steel to weld into damascus billets and we'll do a little forge welding experimentation during my demo. I will also prepare some hand-outs with information that I have gathered about forge welding and also forge welding fluxes.

We may learn some things during this demo, or we may wind up with more questions about forge welding. In either case, I promise that it will give you food for thought on the process.

Hope to see you there!!!

[BrionTomberlin]

Sounds good Steve. I look forward to seeing your demo and the information.

As for my portion. I will be doing a demonstration on hamons. This will be Saturday morning and Sunday morning. For Saturdays section, I plan to give a brief history of hamons and an explanation of just what they are, or at least what my experience has led me to believe. I will also go into the steel types that work best for the funny lines. Then we can move into how to prepare a blade for the coating and types of coatings. Next comes the coating of the blade with the material and the best ways to apply it. Finally for Saturday the blade will be heat treated and hopefully we will get something worth looking at. I will also go into types of quenchant.


On Sunday the session will be, Now we have this blade, what do we do with it to bring out the hamon? This will cover the hand sanding steps, etching,and what to etch with and how long. Then we can move to the fun part, polishing the blade to show the hamon. I will go into what materials I use and what other smiths use. I will have a blade to do this on and we will see how it turns out. Finally we can have a part for any questions.

It should be fun and a learning experience.

I look forward to seeing everyone.

Brion

[ABS Webmaster]

Cindy sent me the proof for the event t-shirt for the 3rd Heartland Hammer-In set for October 6th and 7th.

[BrionTomberlin]

I really like that. Big thumbs up from me. They did a great job on it, and the knives look great too. I would say we have a winner.
Brion

[Steve Culver]

Below is the menu for the Demonstrator's Dinner. The dinner is at 6:30pm, on the Washburn Institute of Technology campus. The price for the dinner is $13.00.

Please let me, or Cindy Sheely know if you plan to attend the dinner so we can get a head count for meal preparation.

Steve Culver sculver@americanbladesmith.com
Cindy Sheely cindy@americanbladesmith.com

Pulled Pork
Barbecue baked beans
Coleslaw
Cornbread Muffins
Tea
Water
Dessert: Peach Crisp

[Mike Williams]

Steve;
I will be on time for supper.. or dinner as you folks in the far north refer to it!!!
My main demo will be the use of cork and leatner belts for blade finishing. I usually use these; not as the final finish but to set up the knife for a nice hand finished job.
We will try to show how to cut the 800 grit hand rubbed down to about 15 minutes of hand sanding.
I would like to stress that the main focus of all the demonstrators is to share information. As a demonstrator I will learn as much as I give.
As attendees; ask questions, dig into the little details, make us work for our dinner!
My wife says I have about four ounces of brains left, they are yours's for the weekend.
It will be nice to head up into some of that cool northern air.
look forward to seeing you all,
Mike

[ABS Webmaster]

Thank you Mike. I am really looking forward to your demonstration. I always learn a a great deal from you and appreciate your sharing of knowledge.

Also I just learned today from Steve Culver that Aldo Bruno the "New Jersey Steel Baron" and Al Lawrence "Uncle Al" of Riverside Machine will be at the Heartland Hammer-In. This is a great opportunity to see and purchase some of the best steel and knife maker supplies available. I would recommend that if there is something special that you want either Aldo or Al to bring for you to the Heartland Hammer-In that you call them today so that they can put it on their truck for you. I have ordered many supplies and received excellent advice from each of these men over the years and you don't want to miss this opportunity.

This is their contact information:

Aldo Bruno
New Jersey Steel Baron
Email office@njsteelbaron.com
Web http://njsteelbaron.com
Telephone (973) 949-4140

Al Lawrence
Riverside Machine
Web http://www.riversidemachine.net
Email uncleal@riversidemachine.net
Telephone (870) 642-7643

[Steve Culver]

I just heard from Ray Kirk. He will be bringing some of his 15N20 and also some 52100 round bar stock. Let Ray know if you have anything specific that you want him to bring for you.

[BrionTomberlin]

This is all great news Steve. For everyone who has been thinking about attending, this Hammer In will be a really good one. Aldo, Uncle Al, Ray, you could not ask for a better line up of suppliers. This one is definitely a go to event.

Brion

[Aldo Bruno]

Hey Guys,

I wanted to mention that if you need anything and you will be attending please call or contact the office so we can get it on the truck for you. I'll have a good selection on board but I can't carry everything.

Thanks.
"The Steel Peddler"

theoffice@njsteelbaron.com
973-949-4140

[ABS Webmaster]

We will be asking each participant to fill out and hand in this survey at the end of the Hammer-In so that we can continue to improve the event and provide demonstrations that you want to see in the future. Sally will have the surveys at the registration desk for you when you check in and get your name tag.

ABS Hammer-In Survey

Thank you for joining us at the 2012 Heartland Hammer-In in Topeka, Kansas. We want to continue to provide a quality educational experience at our ABS Hammer-Ins and need your thoughts on this year’s event and ideas for future events. Please assist us by taking a few minutes to complete and hand in this survey. Thank you!

Steve Culver, ABS Heartland Hammer-In Coordinator

1. What did you like about this year’s event?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Overall, how satisfied were you with this ABS Hammer-In?
1) very satisfied 2) somewhat satisfied 3)neutral 4) somewhat unsatisfied 5) very unsatisfied

_________________

3. Was there anything that you did not like about this year’s Hammer-In?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How did you learn about this year’s Hammer-In? (Check ALL that apply)

4a_________ABS Website or ABS Forum

4b _________ABS Journal “ American Bladesmith”

4c _________Knife magazines (examples- Blade Magazine, Knife World)

4d _________ABS Monthly Email Newsletters

4e _________Kansas Knifemakers Association

4f _________Washburn website or flyer

4g _________Other (Please specify)_____________________________________________



5. What demonstrations would you like to see in the future? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you and please hand in your survey at the Registration Desk.

[Mike Williams]

It looks like the weather is going to be perfect. My first time to the Heartland and I will be away from the shop for a whole weekend!!!
Some nice demo's that I look forward to seeing, get to visit with some new folks.
Bring your knives and your toys, we are going to have a great weekend in Kansas.
Mike

[Michael_Baker]

Don't worry Mike, I'll try not to mess up your shop too bad while you are gone for the weekend!

[ABS Webmaster]

We had some outstanding demonstrations today at the Heartland Hammer-In. Photos and video of the demonstration highlights will be posted later.

The Cutting Demonstration was held this evening and there were many challenging events for the contestants. The winners were:

First Place - Paul Widenhoefer
Second Place - Ray Kirk
Third Place - Brad Green

Congratulations!

[Jim Crowell]

Congratulations Guys. Looks like some mighty fine stuffed stuff.
Not sure what Brad and Ray have. Paul and Ray might be a bit more gentle with their furry friends.

Saw Brion do the clay in Branson and it was great. Aldo is always a treat.

[Gary Mulkey]

I have attended all of the Heartland events and can say that Steve is a wonderful host and always puts on a quality event. If any of you haven't attended then I can recommend it as one not to miss. Lots of great info exchanged and always fun.

Gary

[Kevin Menard]

My first one and it was excellent. My only complaint is that you can't be two places at once to hear both speakers. I can't figure out how to post the photos I took here so I'm mailing to Webmaster Dan....

Definitely worth the drive.