Time for the ABS Youth Hammer-In (June 22/23/24)

[hso]

Every year after the Blade Show/ABS Meeting a dingy bib overalled version of Santa Clause named Larry Harley wheedles and bullies talented bladesmiths to give up part of a week to teach kids that there's more to life than sitting on the couch playing by themselves with their imaginary friends.

This week is the American Bladesmith Society Youth Hammer-In held in Pigeon Forge on the banks of the Pigeon River below the National Knife Museum and Smokey Mountain Knife Works. 22 kids have signed up to learn to forge knives.

My daughter has attended several of these and forged some nice knives. Your kids could learn too.

If you don't have kids (or grandkids) you'd like to have learn to do this, you could always just drop by to see what it's all about. There will be some pretty famous bladesmiths there, and me.

 

[hso]

Some pictures from the first day of the ABS Youth Hammer-In. Lots of kids from all over with an amazing array of backgrounds worked in the heat at forge and anvil to produce their first knife today.

The youngsters in the leftmost picture are 2 of 5 Boy Scouts from Ohio that decided they'd rather learn to forge than go to camp.
The young lady in the middle is returning for her 3rd year and had the guts to pay for a table at Blade this year and show the knives that she worked to completion by hand over the past couple of years.
The young guy on the left in the last picture had never picked a hammer up in his life for anything and very quickly rough forged a blade in just over an hour!

These are just 4 of the 17 kids that put the game controller down and got up off the couch to learn to forge knives. A big round of applause to them and the ABS smiths that volunteered their time and resources to come to Pigeon Forge and help them learn.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Great to see skills being passed forward - kudos to the 'old' 'smiths, and the new ones!

 

[hso]

The littlest and the biggest at the ABS Youth Hammer-In working on knives.

William is the youngest there and is seen with one of the organizers, Wes Byrd, learning to cord wrap his first finished knife.

Collin is the most prolific having hammered out 4 knives today alone. Matter of fact he's done well enough that he doesn't really need a lot of full time coaching and was allowed to work on his own the last two knives with some nominal oversight.

 

[hso]

BTW, temps in the 90's with 8 gas forges bellowing makes for a toasty day.

 

[Mauser lover]

What is the age limit? I want to go!

 

[StephanFowler]

Wish I could have been there but BethAnne is so close to her due date I couldn't reasonably be three hours away.

hope you all had fun

 

[hso]

Stephan,

We would have loved to have you there, but family comes first. Gary Wheeler had to go to Oregon to see his mom so he couldn't make it either. Burt couldn't come. Bill couldn't either.

Even down that many we were short 3 smiths that had expected to come and couldn't. We also had equipment problems! It was a good thing I brought my little pocket forge and anvil or we'd have been down a forge completely half the day yesterday when Richard's blower gave up. One of the dads pulled the blower apart and all but rebuilt it with a multiplier and some electrical tape and got it back up and running, but not until I set my tiny forge up and got the kids with Richard and Brian back to work. Heck, my anvil is still in use today. We had 18 kids and instead of just stalking around as the safety officer and playing overwatch to keep tourists and parents out of the forge tent I ended up pitch hitting for some of the smiths that had to take a break or pass out from the heat. I even got pressed into service and enjoyed working with Collin, the forging fiend, because he didn't need any close supervision after he'd hammered out 3 knives with Wes Byrd, just tips on technique from time to time. Remarkable how much comes back from training when you're in the middle of it all and you're teaching it!

Mauser Lover,

8-18 years of age, but there are adult events at other times/places. http://www.americanbladesmith.com/index.php?section=pages&id=149

 

[hso]

The heat was oppressive again, but each of the kids left with a knife in a finished state.

Most were shaving sharp and they and their parents were surprised at how you could get such a fine edge on a blade the kids produced.

No serious injuries, happy kids with a bunch of new skills, satisfied bladesmiths knowing that if nothing else the kids and their parents have an entirely new appreciation for what it takes to make a knife.

 

[hso]

The Youth Hammer-In class of 2012.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Nice

Good photo.

Who's the other bookend on that front row?

I'm greatly encouraged that you guys do that.

Maybe one of these days you'll throw a similar shindig out on this side of the world.

I'd shuffle time and money to attend that.

 

[hso]

"other bookend"???

AG,

The event is for the kids, but we had plenty of adults circling the forge tent and watching and asking questions.

Smiths will take on adult students and train them, for a price. There are bladesmiths in eastern Washington, but I expect there are some in Idaho you could visit.

 

[hso]

Some knives made by the smiths I got to handle.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

"other bookend"???

Sorry. Silly of me to imagine you'd know which "other" end I meant. You probably don't hear the same voices I do.

Left end of the photo, blue jeans. Wondering if that was someone I should recognize or if he's one of the parents. I had presumed I recognized the guy at the right end.

AG,

The event is for the kids, but we had plenty of adults circling the forge tent and watching and asking questions.

Smiths will take on adult students and train them, for a price. There are bladesmiths in eastern Washington, but I expect there are some in Idaho you could visit.

Yeah, I know it's for kids, still it's something I'd find fascinating.


I'm thinking that, quite in addition to the heat, that would have been a fairly noisy event. Kind of like a bell factory.

 

[hso]

The smith that did the engraving, James Gibson

 

[bikerdoc]

I had presumed I recognized the guy at the right end.

The slimmer guy in the hawaiian shirt? Yes we know him. Dont recognize the "other bookend."

 

[hso]

Heck, whether you recognize the guy, or girth, the shirt's a dead giveaway.

***

James is working on refining a small neck knife that we might offer when it is ready. He's a remarkable student of martial arts, native survival skills and a fine bladesmith. Here he is again drawing the temper.