Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium

Steve Culver

Well-Known Member
The 1st Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium is offered by the American Bladesmith Society, Inc. and is set for October 2nd and 3rd, 2010. It will be hosted by the Kansas Custom Knifemakers Association at the shop of Master Smith Steve Culver in Meriden, Kansas.

The demonstrators will include ABS Master Smiths James Crowell, James Batson, Dan Petersen, Steve Culver, Ray Kirk, ABS Founder B.R. Hughes, Journal Editor Carolyn Hughes, and Journeyman Smith Dave Sloan.

For more information or any questions about this event please contact Steve Culver, Cindy Sheely, ABS Store Manager at store@americanbladesmith.com or call (419) 832-0400 or Dr. Jim Batson at 256-971-6860 for more information about this event.

Register for this event online and pay the $55.00 registration fee through the ABS online store.
http://www.americanbladesmith.com/index.php?section=product&subsection=product_details&product_id=58
 
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Wish I could make this one. That's an ALL Star line up! Those of you who are able to make this one are in for a heck of a treat.
 
Steve, Registered and looking forward to this event. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Phil
 
The symposium came off extremely well. We had 50 registered attendees and numerous walk-ins from the public. I received many comments of appreciation from people who attended the event. Though my shop is a little small for crowding a bunch of people in to, I believe everyone was able to get a good view of the demonstrations.

The knifemaking demos were fantastic. Thanks to Jim Crowell, Ray Kirk, Dan Petersen, B.R. and Carolyn Hughes, Dave Sloan and Jim Bevan for their presentations and hard work. Their contributions to this event were essential to making it such a success.

Thanks too to Dan Cassidy for the photos and videos that he took at the symposium. Dan has posted photos of the event on the ABS Forum. http://www.americanbladesmiths.com/ipboard/index.php and videos on the ABS web site. http://www.americanbladesmith.com/youtube.html I think Dan has some more videos to add after he edits them.

Dave Sloan won the cutting competition, with second place going to Jim Crowell. If I remember correctly, we had nine competitors. Dave received the coveted "Teddy Bear" award for his accomplishment. I seriously considered turning the Teddy Bear into a knifemaker look-alike by making little burns all over it, shaving some hair off of the arms and putting a band-aid on one paw. I shoulda' done it.......

Jim and Jenni Crowell stayed in one of our spare bedrooms for the weekend. We had a great time visiting with them and getting to know them better. Sunday after the symposium was over, Jim and I went out to have a little fun. Jim was interested in seeing what it was like to shoot my Ruger Redhawk, chambered for .480 Ruger. So, we went to the back of our property and shot it a few times. I think Jimmy liked it.

Mary and I really enjoyed hosting the symposium. We feel honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to hold the event at our home. Now that we have been through the experience, we have plans to make the site better for future events. We are looking forward to next year's symposium; if the ABS will bless us with the opportunity to host it again. I hope that all of you will consider coming to it.
 
Here's the teddy bear. With selected knifemaker wear. Bibs and a KCKA hat.

Dave From Diller
 

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Here's a photo of him with the winning knife.

Dave from Diller
 

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