Blacksmith Association sets spring, early summer schedule

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. – The Florida Artist Blacksmith Association Far West Region has set its meeting schedule for spring and early summer 2022.

The mission of the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association (FABA) is to teach and preserve the noble art of blacksmithing. Recently popularized by programs like “forged in Fire” and “Men at Arms,” blacksmithing has experienced a renaissance.

Long before the current flurry of events, the FABA educational non-profit (501c3) has been actively teaching and setting up historical blacksmith shops throughout Florida for the last 35 years. Part of the FABA educational program is to host monthly meetings at six locations around the state.

The Far West chapter is headquartered at Traditions Workshop in Fort Walton Beach. They sponsor monthly meetings throughout the panhandle.

Your first meeting with FABA is always on us. After that, we encourage you to join this fine organization.

Membership is by family and for a family to join go to https://blacksmithing.org (click on the membership tab).  The cost is $30 per year.

Annual membership allows a family to participate at any FABA event throughout the state (usually one every weekend), plus you get an e-copy of the monthly newsletter, The Clinker Breaker, featuring Florida blacksmithing news and events.

Florida Artist Blacksmith Association (FABA) monthly meeting schedule

• February 26, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  Traditions Workshop, 418 Green Acres Rd, Fort Walton Beach
  Project: forging a fork
• March 26, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  John Butler’s farm, 4112 Bell Lane, Pace
  Make and take class $110, lunch included.
  Project: Make a Railroad spike knife.
• April 23, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  Location TBD- probably in Navarre
  Jordan Borstelmann will demonstrate how to make one of his trademark axes.
• May 28, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  Timber Creek Distillery, 6451 Lake Ella Rd, Crestview
  Project: forging a sea creature.

The next Far West meeting will be the February 26– the fourth Saturday of the month–at Traditions Workshop, 418 Green Acres Rd, Fort Walton Beach, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The meeting will focus on splitting iron where the demonstrated task will be to split a bar or a rod with a hot cut tool at the end or in the middle of the iron.

A BBQ fork is just one of many projects that uses this technique.

In the Far West, we always have open forges following the demonstration so you can try your hand at the project for the day.

Lunch is provided, donations are appreciated.

The March 26 meeting will be at John Butler’s family farm, 4112 Bell Lane, Pace, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

We are planning to conduct this meeting as a “make and take” class – turning a Railroad Spike into a knife.

Class cost will be $110 with lunch from Sonny’s BBQ included.

Class size is limited to 12 people, so sign up early at www.TraditionsWorkshop.com/classes.

There will also be one open forge for those not interested in the class. Proceeds from the class will go to support FABA.

The April 23 meeting will probably be held in Navarre from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.. We say probably because we are still working out the details for our location, but if the stars all align correctly, we will have Jordan Borstelmann of Crooked Path Forge visit the Far West and demonstrate how to make one of his trademark axes.

The May 28 meeting will be at Timber Creek Distillery, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m,. with the task to make a sea creature for our contribution to the FABA Con 2022 auction.

We don’t yet know how our judges Cam and Arron might weigh in on this event, but you can count on great pizza from their stone oven and libations from the distillery (and maybe some axe throwing too).

Timber Creek Distillery is at 6451 Lake Ella Road in Crestview (dirt road northeast of Crestview).

Over the summer expect FABA Far West to meet at the Baker Block Museum, date TBD.

Other summer monthly meetings are still up in the air. However, the October 22 meeting will be back at Traditions Workshop to prep the trailer for the trip to the statewide blacksmith conference on November 4-6, in Gainesville.

The forges are already reserved on that day for finalizing the team contributions to the annual conference auction project “creatures.”

If you are interested in any of these events and need more information, contact david@traditionsworkshop.com or call/text David at 850-974-1548.