Is anyone in some of the other kinds of places.....Myspace, Eons, etc.?

Which one(s)?

I am in both Eons ad Myspace, and here of course.....

For now.. just here for me. Although MySpace seems very interesting.

Which one(s)?Apart from this place, I spend a bit of time over at the Literature Network. This should come as no big suprise to those of you who know what a bookworm I am... :read:

There are some additional fora I visit less regularly...

/Claes

I'm on LinkedIn, MySpace and MyGreatRides(dot)com (a motorcycle community - big shock, huh? :lol:)...

I check and post on a couple hobby related sites - (the hobby being blacksmithing) the sites are: anvilfire.com, forgemagic.com, farwestforge.com, and don fogg's knife forume. That site can be found by doing a google search for don fogg, and then clicking on the link to go to the forum. On Don's forum, I use the same name as here: Kevin H, on the others I started with name Gavainh and have kept it, as a number of posts and answers are associated with it.

Social?
I admin on a small board of people who are mostly people who got tired to trolling on the old f'd company bbs that folded a couple years ago . About 30 active members just staying in touch.
I also participate on board for fans of the comic book Fables that was set up by the creator.

Never even considered myspace or facebook.

I check and post on a couple hobby related sites - (the hobby being blacksmithing) the sites are: anvilfire.com, forgemagic.com, farwestforge.com, and don fogg's knife forume. That site can be found by doing a google search for don fogg, and then clicking on the link to go to the forum. On Don's forum, I use the same name as here: Kevin H, on the others I started with name Gavainh and have kept it, as a number of posts and answers are associated with it.

How do you get into blacksmithing as a hobby? Sounds really cool. Do you have your own forge in you yard? What kind of stuff do you make?

Scott, partly came to it through my original degree - Metallurgy & Material Science in 1974, when CMU could have left off the materials science part since the coursework was about 90% metals for the major's concentration. I'd always been interested in blacksmithing and then ran into some friends who were doing it as a hobby and they invited me down to try. From there, I took a weekend course at a crafts center, set up a backyard forge and get to a couple weekend demonstrations a year. Most of the smithing is weekend stuff, fitted around other hobbies. I'm definitely an "amateur" with an interest in historical ironwork from the US colonial period running back into the 14th century, and also blades and woodworking tools.

There is a bit of a national resurgence in blacksmithing, especially as a hobby. The national organization is ABANA, with the web site www.abana.org There are also lots of local chapters that have monthly programs. The one I belong to is Pgh. area artist blacksmiths ass'n @ www.paaba.net

I know there are groups in New Jersey, eastern PA, and Maryland as well - most have some sort of monthly meetin were forging related demos are given & where you could contact people about instruction in your area.

The crafts center I went to for instruction is Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, PA near the Ft Necessity Battlefield National Park - web site www.touchstonecrafts.com John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC also offers smithing classes as well as other craft classes, and folk dance classes.
The next demo I hope to get to is the Great Lakes International Iron Fest in Buffalo, NY May 23, 24, 25, & 26. After that, probably no other big get together until Quad State in Troy, Ohio near the end of September.

The Anvilfire site has a lot of links that tie to/list local groups and also smiths who offer instruction.

I don't use FaceBook or MySpace, but I contribute to a couple of vehicle forums (very simlar to the Cove) and local clubs have their websites, too.

My sons are both avid MySpace and Facebook users, tho', but then you'd expect that from 17 & 19 year olds........

I'm on two other sites, one for Shetland Sheep (I have 134 of the little cuties, with 11 ewes yet to lamb), and the new Content Wrangler site for technical communicators. In addition I subscribe to 22 email lists - some for business (FrameMaker, XML, etc.) and the balance related to sheep, spinning, weaving, and other textile arts, plus one for family.

You'd think, after spending every day at work on one computer or another, I'd run screaming from them at home.

I'm not that smart.

sheeplady

PS - I have a friend in Illinois who is a blacksmith. They also raise Shetland Sheep, and are active re-enactors

Linkedin is worth it's weight in gold:cool:

Scott, partly came to it through my original degree - Metallurgy & Material Science in 1974, ... I'd always been interested in blacksmithing and then ran into some friends who were doing it as a hobby and they invited me down to try. ....

Small World. I am also a Metallurgical Engineer, but I have gone down the hobby foundry road. My hobby is backyard metalcasting. Like you amateur blacksmiths there is a large loose group chatting on the web.

We share homemade burner designs, but where you heat, we melt with them.

My neighbor was pretty freaked out by my set up when he saw it last summer. My melter throws some good flames at night and roars like a jet engine!

My daughter wants to be a blacksmith and forge swords (thanks to Lord of the Rings). We are going to sign her up for a weekend hands on session with a local artisan to see if she will stick with it when it gets hard.

Any pictures of your work you would care to share? Have you done any damascene work? Now thats cool!

Hi Caster, my work is not at a point where I'd be comfortable in posting any. Hopefully in a year or two I'll have some stuff I'm comfortable with posting/exhibiting. Though, I have been pressured into doing some demos at a local historic site. I think part of the draw is having someone in colonial clothing demoing blacksmithing. Most of the smithing has been either with coal, or coke. I've largely been using coke because I had a buddy working in a testing lab for USX that tested cao, including coking properties and we could get the test residue for free. That source has dried up due to USX selling off that part of the lab, & my buddy loosing his job due to reorgaization by the new owners after they screwed up sales. I'll probably be looking at propane in the not too distant future to replace the coke.

I've looked at backyard casting, and may eventually play with it a bit. It's not uncommon for "blacksmiths" to do some casting as well. One of the most enthusiastic & talented part-time blacksmiths I've run across is a guy by the name of Kim Thomas in eastern Ohio (his web site is: www.thomasironworks.com) He's done some presentations that include demos of brass casting. Kim works full time in a steel mill, and then blacksmiths on the side.

I don't personally know any swordsmiths, but it's a fascinating subset of bladsmithinig. If you're comfortable with your daughter using the internet, definitely steer her to Don Fogg's blade smith forum - lots of very talented people posting on that site including a number of European smiths.

I'm on FaceBook and LinkedIn. Although I don't currently do much work networking yet. Mostly I play chess on FaceBook.

Wow.....I am the only one who posts on Eons?

Why do I suddenly feel old?

Wow.....I am the only one who posts on Eons?

Why do I suddenly feel old?

Ok, Hershal, I'll bite....What is Eons? :notme:

Gawd........I now officially feel ancient.....

http://www.eons.com

Imagine myspace for a somewhat more mature set of folks.........

I've been in my own world for well over 30 years:lol:

So if Eons is for Boomers, what's out there for us Pre-boomers?

Sheeplady

Friendster and Facebook works for me.

Is anyone in some of the other kinds of places.....I was wondering about this recently. I've noticed a couple of people here who have 'signature privileges' which allow active links have put in their LinkedIn link.

Linkedin is worth it's weight in gold:cool: How so? What is the advantage of LinkedIn?

I've been in my own world for well over 30 years:lol: As we all well know... :notme: Being a 'child of the 1960's', I can relate :thedeal:

With the current upgraded software, looks like we are having an 'all in one' - forum, blog, album, friends and social groups.

Just new toys.