[Owen Bush]

I hope that this is an apropriat thing to be posting in this area of the forum I am sure it will be of interest ,If it is not apropriat then please let me know

Dear All.
I am having a" forge in" on the last weekend of march at my forge in london/kent .The theme will be swords .
There should be a good gathering of people and demonstrations/lectures by Don Fogg (USA)and Jake powning (Canada) and Peter Johnsson (sweden) will give a talk on documenting and replicating historic blades.I'll be edge welding up a viking sword and I have other demonstrators in discussion (speaking to hector cole about a talk on his historical blades) .
well have an open cutting comp on sat eve (before the boozing) and fun to be had by all .There will be food provided on sat eve .
There will be 10 forging stations set upin my forging school to have a go at forging a blade .
I shall be asking for a fee for the event (probably £50 or£60) to cover flights etc for the demonstrators .

we shall be gathering on friday the 28th for a look round the wallace and british museum and then forge in starts friday late afternoon/ eve (for a curry ) and then continues over sat and sun .
I have warm dry space to crash out in and b and bs nearby .

If you have swords ,please bring them along as a show and tell .

.I will run this as a non profit event and ALL funds will go to running this forge in or go on to others in the future

This is shaping up to being a world class event , and will be interesting to both makers and colectors /interested parties .

If you are interested please email me at owen@owenbush.co.uk or phone me on 07973798690

I would be greatfull for any other websites or associations who might be interested in a gathering such as this

Many thanks Owen Bush

[Leo Todeschini]

For those of you who do not know of Owen, he is a seriously good pattern welder who has pursued his art for its own sake rather than promoting what he does, but he really is very very good indeed.

It promises to be a well run event and worth attending if you can make it over.

Tod

[Antal László]

Great!!! I'll be there!

[William M]

Sounds fantastic! I am seriously considering going. However is this the 28th of November or Decmber?
Also I have never made a blade before, will I be able to make one at the workshop?

Thanks!

William

[Gabriel Lebec]

[William M]

Oh right thanks........ Guess I shouldn't read too quickly!

[Owen Bush]

Tod ,thanks for your coments.
the forge in will be a great chance to have a go at blade forging and the demos are going to be good.
aside from that it is always good to hang with like minded people and chat about blades over a beer or two .
I'll pop back to this thread every now and then to give more information .
Thanks Owen

[Owen Bush]

Update,

On the 29th and 30th of march 2008 (gathering friday the 28th)

I shall be hosting a sword themed Forge-in at my smithing school in Welling Kent.
I have gathered an international cast for demonstrations and lectures:

Don fogg
will be giving demos (not sure what yet, but he is a world of knowledge). Don is one of America's best knife and sword makers and does the most amazing crisp work and unbelievable Hamone.

Jake Powning
will be giving a talk on his work and his inspirations in Nordic and celtic myth and legend (Jakes work has to be seen to be believed - his swords create a world in there own right).


Peter Johnsson
will be giving a talk on his methods of documenting and remaking museum pieces, concentrating on the methods of documentation, what to look for in ancient swords and how to bring the functional properties to life in a replica, with sketches and examples. Peter makes exellent quality swords of the High Medieval era.

Hector Cole
will be showing his work on ancient sword making and has done a lot of resurch into viking and saxon sword reproduction using period methods.
Hector is probably Britians best known sword smith and you will have no doubt seen him on time team etc.

Owen Bush
As it my gig I get to Demo too!
I shall be demonstrating wrapping a steel edge onto a viking sword blade, this is a method I have been doing a bit of recently and is one of the more complex parts of pattern welding in a Viking style.

I hope you'll agree this is looking like a world class event. So far I've got people coming from Sweden,Switzerland,America,Canada,Uk, Finland and hopefully Germany and Italy .

Aside from the lectures and demos there will be:

Forges available for having a bash (I have 8 forges now) and grinders for having a grind, lots of people to learn from (aside from Don, Peter, Jake, Hector and myself) and one of the friendliest atmospheres you could want at a gathering.

I shall be doing food on the Sat eve and am heading towards the idea of roasted beef for this one.

Drinking by the fire on sat night has always been a high point!!!

There will be a cutting comp organised by Longstrider and this time I shall be putting up prizes for the winners. 3 classes Open, open single handed and regulation 10 incher !
I would like this to be a real focal point as there is a lot to learn from cutting.

We shall be gathering on friday in london to hit the wallace museum and British and have a couple of pints and head back to the forge for supper (curry) on friday eve.

OK now for the painful part:
I am asking a Fee of £60 for this event and this will go up to £75 if booked after end of Jan.
This is an expensive event for me to run (flights and accom to pay for +gas and coke etc). As per normal I will not be making personal profit from this. I managed to stay under budget at the last forge-in so am rolling that into this (so to speak).
There is crash space at the forge and If you want a B&B I'll help find you one. I'll provide food on sat eve but breakfasts and lunches is up to you (there are shops and greasy spoons close by).

Thanks for looking