Blacksmith Demonstration at Sommer Park

The Peoria Section held a blacksmith demonstration on Wednesday, October 20 at the Sommer Park blacksmith shop.  The demonstration was put on by Gary Jameson and Gerald Thatcher of the Illinois Valley Blacksmith Association.  Sommer Park has built an authentic replica of an old time blacksmith shop and allowed us to use it for our meeting.  Gary Jameson and Gerald Thatcher spent about two and one half hours showing the AWS members the process and tools needed to make a large decorative fork, how to make and forge weld a chain link and how to twist a piece of square stock.  We had about thirty members for this meeting, with a good mix of students, artists and our regular members. 
We want to thank the Peoria Park District for he use of their Facility and Gary Jameson and Gerald Thatcher for their time.

Jess Hunter, District Director, was also at the meeting to hand out Section Awards.

Gary Jameson, (front) is showing Seppo Nykänen how to twist a piece
of square stock.  Gary is a blacksmith and member of the Illinois Valley Blacksmith Association and Seppo Nykänen is a faculty member from Finland who is visiting the USA as part of a faculty exchange.