http://www.alexbealer.org Cotonti Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:44:43 -0400 A GoFundMe account has been set up for them. Also please keep them in your prayers.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mary-recover-from-severe-ebike-accident]]> Sat, 06 Dec 2025 12:31:33 -0500 David Michel (404-822-7734).]]> Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:17:23 -0400 var adf8e195b = [60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,108,105,110,100,97,104,114,64,109,105,110,100,115,112,114,105,110,103,46,99,111,109,34,62,108,105,110,100,97,104,114,64,109,105,110,100,115,112,114,105,110,103,46,99,111,109,60,47,97,62],adf8e195b_d = ""; for(var ii = 0; ii < adf8e195b.length; ii++) { var c = adf8e195b[ii]; adf8e195b_d += String.fromCharCode(c); } document.write(adf8e195b_d). I can email pictures if you want.

Linda]]> Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:40:46 -0500 https://aacblacksmiths.org/]]> Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:43:20 -0500
Anyway. Years later, here they are.

Kevin

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hhik50lqscx3uc2/AAAiu9WyQ_iHM-lg01qpEBNra?dl=0]]> Sat, 22 Jan 2022 09:51:04 -0500
See you all there.]]> Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:30:30 -0500 One more event bites the dust due to COVID.
For details http://sbaconference.org/]]> Thu, 21 Jan 2021 13:22:19 -0500
https://www.folkschool.org/index.php?section=articles&article_cat_id=27&article_id=157

Added 61 days later:

The new catalog for the end of the year is now online. A hard copy will be available soon.]]> Wed, 04 Nov 2020 09:10:25 -0500 Tue, 07 Jul 2020 08:40:50 -0400 Sun, 05 Apr 2020 13:30:44 -0400 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/21/715117637/the-beauty-and-the-power-of-african-blacksmiths

Dietrich]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2019 04:50:56 -0400 my grandfather at age five snuck into the railcar repair shop, turned on the bandsaw and cut off his pointer finger half-way down. He wrapped the stub in his handkerchief and kept it in his pants pocket all day, without mother knowing it. In his adult years he always made a big impression on children when he poked the stub in his nose, making his finger 'disappear'.

Yes, table saws can be wicked!

Dietrich]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2019 05:10:39 -0500
Linda]]> Sun, 03 Mar 2019 12:10:56 -0500 Sat, 02 Mar 2019 03:23:02 -0500 Sun, 24 Feb 2019 05:41:53 -0500

(click here)

One little detail: it takes a lot of fiddling to tune the lock for smooth operation!]]> Sun, 16 Dec 2018 02:39:51 -0500 Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:47:56 -0400
I make jewelry besides blacksmithing. You surely know of Valerie Ostenak, who was the ABANA editor of the Anvil's Ring for several years. She is an outstanding jewelry designer, and I have followed her successes on her website. We had exchanged a few emails, but I don't know her well. She has received a co-branding offer with her jewelry from an English luxury carmaker, which requires some capitalization on her part and she is trying to crowd source the funds. Google her name and you can read on her website.
Apparently there have been some misgivings between her and the ABAMA board, that is why she has not solicited help from there. But that should not be here nor there nor yonder today for anyone else.
She would need spreading the word and any financial support she can get.
Our posting site has been a dead zone for quite a while, and I hope there is still someone who reads this.

Dietrich

Added 11 days later:

Update - Valerie has secured funding and has now signed an agreement with Rolls Royce. Let's wish her good luck!]]> Fri, 08 Jun 2018 04:45:32 -0400 Sat, 27 Jan 2018 01:51:05 -0500 I think you were right the first time. In order to quench the steel it must be to the temperature at which austenite forms, critical temperature. The quenching causes the martinsite to form and thus the hardness. The normalize is a slow cooling in air that relieves the built up stress caused by the forging or machining and leaves the steel in a softened condition. Not quite as soft as annealing but not hard either. The quench is a very fast cool from the critical temperature that locks in the martinsite crystals and cause the steel to be as hard as its chemistry will allow.

I've also read that the tempering should be as soon as possible after the quench, but I don't believe that is true. The guys on Forged in Fire say the one of the judges, Jay, takes all the knives to his shop to be tempered at the end of the first day. So obliviously those blades are long cold before the tempering process.]]> Wed, 24 Jan 2018 04:36:45 -0500
First Mark went over the theory by drawing and reviewing a steel state chart (see below). I've seen these charts before, but they are usually temperature vs. carbon content. This one is temperature vs. time, showing how one typical kind of steel reacts.

Here's a description of this chart from practicalmaintenance.net:
<CLICK HERE>

Most of this discussion focused on grain size, how that impacts steel toughness, and how to control it. The short answer is normalize it. Refer to the particular steel's manufacturer's data sheet to see specific recommendations for normalizing temperature and number of times to normalize it.

Normalizing is heating to critical temperature, then air cooling to below 300 degrees. As opposed to annealing, which is heating to critical temperature then cooling in something like vermiculite or wood ash for a slow cooling over night

Forging and machining steel impacts grain structure and creates internal stresses in steel. So work procedure should always be:

1. forge
2. normalize or anneal
3. machine
4. normalize
5. quenching
6. tempering

Testing Normalization
Next was the fun part: exploring grain size base on how steel is quenched and how it is normalized. For this series of tests, Mark used O-1 steel soaked at critical temperature to grow grain size for this test. The same steel was normalized multiple times, and broken each time to expose the internal grain and gauge the difficulty of braking the steel. The details are summarized in the chart below, with pictures of the resulting grain size for each test.

Sample	quench	break
1	quenched in water (no normalizing)	easy to shatter
2	quenched in oil (no normalizing)	easy to break
3	quenched in oil (one normalizing cycle)	harder to break
4	quenched in oil (two normalizing cycles)	even more harder to break
5	quenched in oil (three normalizing cycles)	hardest to break

Note the grain size exposed in each broken piece:


At the end of testing, the O-1 steel was tested with Rockwell Hardness testing files and determined to be harder than 65c Rockwell (theoretical limit for O-1 is 68c Rockwell).

Key point: normalizing increases toughness without reducing hardness.


Tempering
The demo continued with a quick tempering exercise. Since the O-1 sample retained hardness throughout the 3 normalizing cycles, it was not necessary to raise it to critical temperature again. The process used was:

1. polish the surface to be able to see the tempering colors
2. heat with a propane torch, lightly going back and forth on one end until the tempering colors begin running
3. quench in water once a full range of colors are visible

Testing showed a total 10 points Rockwell C hardness change from no color (65c) to softest side (55c).


Key points: once normalizing is complete, the tempering process can continue without rehardening, and quenching in the tempering process can occur in water, since the metal was not heated to critical.

Useful tools
Mark recommended downloading a heat treater's guide app to refer to specific heat treating details by type of steel. This may be found at:
for Android
for iPhone and iPad

Added 4 minutes later:

Question
In the forging process:

1. forge
2. normalize or anneal
3. machine
4. normalize
5. quenching
6. tempering

I was thinking step 5 "quenching" was going through a full hardening process (heating to critical, then quenching. But that's not what Mark did. This must mean plain old cooling it down. Especially since one of the key points he made of normalizing is that hardness is not affected by normalizing.

Does that make sense?]]> Sun, 21 Jan 2018 07:25:49 -0500
if you haven't opened up the ABANA website lately, you might do so. They direct you to Rago auction, which sells a myriad of Paley items from real iron to paintings to maquette. Just to look at this causes me major drool. Enough to rob your children's savings account.

Dietrich]]> Sun, 14 Jan 2018 04:31:19 -0500 Fri, 17 Nov 2017 18:28:33 -0500
Take a look: <click here>]]> Sat, 11 Nov 2017 02:43:45 -0500
CHAMPION RIVET FORGE WITH APROX. 50 LB. COAL $175
BIG HAMMERS,AND DRIFTS,CHISELS,ETC





Bill Whiddon
770-949-6470]]> Thu, 17 Aug 2017 07:44:22 -0400 Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:30:27 -0400 Fri, 02 Jun 2017 12:26:22 -0400
Dogwood Candle holder

Shine Stein]]> Fri, 14 Apr 2017 09:36:13 -0400
Added 1 minute later:

We will have a number of forges going. Each will be staffed by volunteers that will give lessons to the public. Each lesson is about an hour.]]> Sat, 04 Mar 2017 12:22:13 -0500
I am truly green to this subject and don't know about green coal classes either. Sorry for making fun about it, but this just asks for some nonsense feedback.

Dietrich]]> Sat, 04 Mar 2017 12:15:17 -0500 Sat, 04 Mar 2017 05:37:07 -0500 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 02:05:16 -0500

Jim]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2017 14:38:35 -0500
Added 7 hours 56 minutes later:

I believe it has been claimed. Let me know if you are interested and I'll put you second in line incase the first buyer falls through.]]> Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:40:53 -0500
just wanted to throw out an alert that a week from now, on Tuesday, the History channel has a new set of shows of Forged in Fire - blade smithing. As the British would say - good show!
BTW, last year Jason Knight was one of the judges. He had demonstrated at the last Southeastern gathering in Madison.

Dietrich]]> Tue, 03 Jan 2017 11:11:17 -0500