Dear Fellow Blacksmiths,

ABANA is celebrating its 50th anniversary and I would like to invite all of you to celebrate with us. Anniversaries are an opportunity to look back, and they are also an opportunity to look forward. And I would like to invite all of you to help us shape our next 50 years. More on that, but first let’s talk about the celebration.

We are now deep into the planning of a special 50th Anniversary Celebration in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in early June 2024. Get your calendar out now and save the date because you won’t want to miss it! We have an amazing line-up of world-class demonstrators, which we hope will inspire you with their art and skills. We are excited that artist-blacksmith Artem Marshak will be forging a sculpture for us. You can read up on his background on page 36. The super talented Jennifer Petrila will showcase traditional blacksmithing while longtime instructor Randy McDaniel will give practical advice on how to make use of a hydraulic press in your work. For the blade enthusiasts, Steve Rollert will demonstrate pattern welded blades. Another attraction will be a power hammer demo by Patrick Quinn at the Center for Metal Arts. In addition to demos, we will have extensive hands-on education for all skill levels, including a beginner’s tent where new smiths are invited to put their first piece of iron in the fire, and multiple National Curriculum tents where students of all 3 Levels can hone their skills under the professional guidance of our National Curriculum Instructors, including Mark Aspery, Bob Menard, Victoria Ritter, Becky Schimpff, Mark Sperry and Philip Waters. In the run-up to the Celebration we will be holding a virtual Level II class from January through May, so you can get started with the Zoom classes and then come for in-person instruction in June. We will have instructors available to evaluate projects and grilles for anyone who is working on our Curriculum for certification, so bring them on! All this will be packaged with the usual friendly atmosphere of meeting old friends and making new ones, talking shop with vendors or finding must-haves in the tailgate section.

And there’s more! The City of Johnstown has invited us to host our first ever international competition in downtown Central Park as part of our Festival, and it will be open to the public. Teams of up to 4 smiths will have 4 hours to forge an art piece commemorating: ‘ABANA – Forging Connections for 50 Years.’ If you’d like to compete, now is the time to get your team ready and sign up on our website! Also in Central Park, we will be assembling a sculpture that includes rings with Johnstown motifs. We invite Affiliates and individual smiths to get creative and become part of this project. Don’t forget to put your touchmark on your ring. If your ring is one of that is chosen for the sculpture it will become part of the storied history of Johnstown, a city that stands for the American steel history. Last but not least, we are partnering with the Forging Industry Association of America to offer an introduction to forging for kids in the park. They will be able to start forming plasticine with hammers and other blacksmith tools without running the risk of touching hot steel.

An “0” birthday often is a reflection point, celebrating past achievements but also thinking about the future. So let’s now put some focus on the future.

The ABANA members, that’s you, have elected five new Board Members: Becky Schimpff, Drew Hagemann, David Walker, Ronnie Booth, and Rusty Osbourne, and old and new Board Members together elected me, Frank Annighofer, as your new President of ABANA. I’m honored and humbled to be in this role, and I am here to serve you. Your Board just finished our Annual Meeting. I can tell you, there is a lot of energy to tackle the challenges we are facing and guide our organization into the future. Much has changed since ABANA was founded in 1973, and as an organization we need to adjust.

And that’s where you come in. Over the next few months, we will be reaching out to you for your input as we go forward. Our mission will stay the same, perpetuating the art of blacksmithing. And blacksmithing will still be done with forge, anvil, and hammer. As an organization, however, we believe there is much more that ABANA can do to help its members and strengthen our community in the service of developing skills and sharing knowledge. And we would like your input to inform this direction. Supporting the blacksmithing community is our future. Together we will be able to make ABANA better.

Happy Holidays for you and your family,

Frank Annighofer