2012 Dates will be Thursday May 31st through June 3rd 2012.
The Jim Seery Memorial 23rd Annual Hammer-In blacksmith event.
For those of you who have not heard, our founding organizer, Jim Seery passed away after a short illness in early November 2010. While Jim had handed off the organizational responsibilities in 2008, he was still an important fixture of Hammer In. It was important to Jim that Hammer In continues, if possible, and I assured him before he passed that we would make every effort to keep it alive, in his memory, and so we shall.
Hammer-In is intended to be an opportunity for people interested in blacksmithing to get together to socialize and share knowledge. There is no formal program, and traditionally we have fastidiously avoided having any coherent plan, which we follow precisely. If you’re getting started, there will be forge setups for you to learn some basic techniques on simple projects, and more advice than you can pack home in a bucket. Some of it actually good. As is tradition and practice, if you don’t know – ASK. If you do know, TEACH.
Contrary to all governmental policy, we assume the people who attend are adults, and we have a policy of an absolute minimum of rules. You are responsible for your own safety, and that of anyone with you. Blacksmithing, by definition, involves hot forges and iron, heavy anvils hammers and the like. If you want safety equipment (safety glasses, gloves, aprons, etc) you will need to provide them for yourself. Young people are welcome, but need to understand that there are hot forges, hot iron and heavy tools in the forge area, and need to behave appropriately. We expect the adults with them to see this is the case.
Because of a couple of situations which developed in past years, we do have a couple of minor changes. We prefer that people not bring their dogs, if possible, because the property owner has dogs and horses and there is a very busy highway alongside the site. If you feel obliged to bring your dogs, they MUST be under PHYSICAL control at all times. This is a rule we WILL enforce this year. The Big Thompson River is along one side of the property as well. We have never had a problem, but we have no control over the river, and we don’t want any accidents there this year, either.
There is some camping space, subject to first come, first served. There is potable water available. Small camp fires are OK, but bring your own wood for them. If you have some sort of overhead “fly” for your forge setup, bring it. It keeps you from burning to a crisp, getting rained on, and provides shade to see the color of your fire.
We want anyone who wants to come to be able to join us, but there are some expenses involved in putting this event on. There is the mailing list, and a bottle of something nice for our host, Rusty May, and the biggest expense of all, the Porta-Johns. The cost of them is getting steep. We don’t charge a fee to join us, but we do ask everyone who is able to, to contribute $10 to help us cover the costs associated with putting on a fun event. That’s $10 to cover all four days of the event. Seems a bargain to me. Please understand that none of us who put this event on have EVER made a profit out of it. That is not our intent. But we do need to cover our costs. Jim always said that if the event ever got to be too much trouble, or cost us too much money, it would come to an end. That is still the way we feel. We don’t want or plan to make any money out of this, but we do feel those who participate have a responsibility to contribute their share for the expense of having it.
Our most capable chief cook has once again agreed to grace our event as Kitchen Queen. As those who have attended before, the supper is always a memorable feast. I don’t know what’s on the menu, and I doubt she will either, until the time comes, but I guarantee it will be good. Please understand the supper requires a SEPARATE FEE, probably around $15 PER PERSON over 12, but the cooks decide that. Because of the number of people who are now coming to supper, and the amount of food which must be purchased, we will have a token which must be purchased in order to join us for supper. It helps the cook know how many to plan for, especially since we have so many family members join us for supper Saturday evening.
I know that Jim will join us in spirit this year, watching to see that all “S-hooks” are properly made, and that a good time is had by all. Jim’s grandson, Matthew is a young adult, but is working hard to become a capable blacksmith. He plans to be there, to carry on the Seery tradition of hitting hot iron at Hammer In.
We hope you will join us for another fun year. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Jan Manning and Jim Taylor
