Planning on going to the ABANA conference in June? It will be held at the AgriCenter
International in Memphis, Tennessee from June 2nd til June 5th? If you buy your tickets today or tomorrow you can save a few bucks. After tomorrow the cost of admission is going up. For more conference information take a look at the ABANA pages.

A friend of mine forwarded a pretty neat craigslist posting. If you are in the Kansas City area, this might be worth a few phone calls. It's an old vise, supposedly a swivel post vise. If you know anything about this type of tool, please comment or let us know more!

The BBC is running an incredibly interesting piece that discusses the history of the sign that was recently stolen from Auschwitz. It reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" and was constructed by metalworks and blacksmiths that the Nazi's were holding in the camp. The master blacksmith Jan Liwacz oversaw the work, as he was a prisoner there as well. The sign it self became an important symbol of the times, and the BBC does a fantastic job talking about the history and restoration of the piece.

Devon 24, a news site out of the UK, is running an interview with professional blacksmith, Simon Connett. He talks about what it's like to forge for a living, and there is a bit about his background as well. Simon's work can be found online at http://www.simonconnett.com/. He has some great pictures up, and it worth taking some time to examine.

There is a great piece out there about some work I can really get behind. The Isreal National News is running a story about a local blacksmith that has been re-purposing used munitions metal into roses. The artist is named Yaron Bob and lives in Yated, a few kilometers away from Gaza. Yaron hopes to turn the items of war, Kassam rocket casings, into something that can deliver a kinder message. I just love hearing about these kinds of stories. More information can be found at http://www.rocketsintoroses.com/.

A piece of history recently sold in Seattle. It's a Nazel 4N. The anecdotal story is that it used to belong to the Seattle Steel Rolling Mill, formerly Birmingham Steel and Bethlehem Steel before that. It's a real beauty. It would be a heck of job to pick this up and move it, not to mention prepping a new home for it. These hammers require a heavy duty foundation.

A few different news sites are covering the grand re-opening of Fort New Salem's Blacksmith Shop. WDTV has some video and pictures posted. This past weekend the forge was lit for the first time since 2005. The square footage was doubled and many structural elements were re-built. If you are in the Salem, West Virginia area you should stop be and check it out. Heck send us a few pictures and we'll get them posted!

Bend, Oregon is holding a cyclocross event, and along with the festivities are several art shows focused around the sport. One local artist-blacksmith has some great work up. His name is Hunter Dalhberg and he built a piece entitled Primal Drive. It is worth looking at the story on The Bend Bulletin. to see a picture of the piece. Pieces will be on display at the Oxygen Tattoo and Nomad Piercing Studio. Hunter's blacksmith business, Orion Forge, can be found online at http://www.orionforge.com. He has a nice site and a good gallery of work up.

Jim Binnion is one of the foremost authorities on Mokume Gane that you can find. His website is up at http://mokume-gane.com. He was recently interviewed on Blog Talk Radio. You can find the show hosted here. He talks about his past, how he got into Jewelry and Mokume work. He also talks about his methods as well. All and all this is an incredibly interesting interview. There are more of Jim's websites that revolve around his products and his processes.