Northwest Blacksmith Association

NWBA Conference 2018

Date/Time
Date(s) - 05/11/2018 - 05/13/2018
All Day

May 11-13 2018
Online Registration is Now Closed.   

Registration will be open at the conference. 

Set up day Thursday, May 10, 2018

  • Demonstrators:

    Main Event Local Demonstrator: Scott Szloch. See more about Scott at:  http://szlochironworks.com
    Main Event From Afar: Rachel David of New Orleans, See more about Rachel at: http://redmetal.net

  • Hands-On Classes:
    Alair Wells: Beginner- Tooling up
    Bill Apple:Intermediate- Getting the most out of your top tools.
    Ben Czyhold: Advanced Class – developing forms from a piece of flat bar – i.e. making three dimensions from 2 dimensions
  • Repoussé Station
  • Gallery: bring your works to display in our gallery, show off your latest.
  • Auction: support the NWBA with an entry into the auction, something hand-made, materials, tools or services. Anything of value that can be sold at our auction.
  • Black Smoke Alley: bring your solid fuel forge and set up in Black Smoke Alley to demonstrate and offer hands on experiences, or just enjoy forging at your own setup during the conference.
  • Tailgate Sales: fill your pickup with tools and materials, sell them to your friends, and buy enough of someone else’s stuff to fill the truck back up.
  • Contests with prizes: Friday night Solo Blacksmith Challenge ‘Twist Off’, Saturday night Group Blacksmith Challenge ‘Ring Toss’ (2-3 smiths)
  • Potluck Social: large grill will be available to cook your barbecue meats, bring food to share.  It is a potluck and the NWBA will be providing the grill and the picnic spot and some food.  Last year there was confusion about this, and even though a lot of people did not bring food, there was a lot to eat and people had a really good time hanging out and sharing a meal together. Plan on being there!
  • Banquet and Dessert Dash!

Camping for tents and r.v.s are available for $15 a night plus tax= $16.21, this is PER TENT or RV, not per person. 
The past few years the NWBA has subsidized the camping, paying the bill for our group’s camping and paying more for the camping than we charged.  The fees went up yet again this year.  The fees we are charging just covers our costs.  

Hotel Info: Use your favorite search engine (Google, Bing, etc etc) to find hotel info for your conference visit: “Longview, WA Hotels”

Hotel Discount: The Best Western Aladdin will give NWBA members a discount on rooms, $95 a room.
You must book by April 27th and mention the NWBA. After the 27th rooms will be normal price. 


Location
Cowlitz Expo Center and NWBA Mentoring Center


Comments

  1. I have not yet attended a mentoring center meet, but am trying to make it down this weekend. I just wanted to know if the event is dog friendly. My chocolate lab is my forge buddy. She loves to hang around with me and has her favorite place to lay in my shop when I am working (out of range of any hot flying bits). She is also my service dog, but if I were to bring her, it would not be a working day for her, so she would not be in her service dog role.
    Thanks,
    Scott

    • The demonstration this weekend, Mark Aspery, is demo only, no open forge. Dogs are often welcome, well behaved ones, but I would say that there will be a LOT of people there and your dog would have to stay out of the way. If you are confident you have control of your dog, and you are willing to take the dog outside if you need to, I would leave it up to you, there is no rule, use good judgement.

  2. Yes, arrive here and pay for registration and membership and he can join. If he is under 18 he will need a responsible adult with him if he wants to work with any tools.

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