ABASA Membership is open to all who have a lively interest in metalwork, and as seen on Saturday, even kids can have a go at hammering hot steel (with a little help from dad now and then).

At the meeting held after the forge-in, the setting up of ABASA was dicussed and Tiaan Burger duely appointed as Secretary, with the task of compiling and editing a quarterly newsletter to be distributed to all members. A resolution was adopted to move away from the confusing term of "wrought iron objects" as this is being used by the "cut and weld" fraternity. Instead the terms "forge made, forged or fire made" should be used by all blacksmiths.

ABASA is making an appeal to the blacksmithing community to make available any old books, blacksmithing newsletters and publications to set up a roving library and as resource for our newsletter. The reasonfor this is that most of our members do not have access to the internet, and that is unaffordable for most smiths to attend conferences or forge ins in Europe or the USA to gain knowledge of our craft.

Among the attendees where four art students from Pretoria University who, even though they have never forged before, quickly got into the swing and showed their creativity.

Left and below, Marius Burger (Tiaan's brother) working on a poker.

Tiaan Burger making tongs on treadle hammer.

Coenraad Vegter demonstrated how to make traditional tongs, Tiaan Burger, the host for the day, and Jurgen Degenhardt demonstrated two alternative methods of tong making. Paul Mikula from the NW province had some blacksmithing equipment on sale and had some brisk trade. Tiaan also introduced his first book on blacksmithing, titled Blacksmithing Tools, which was very well received.

Paul Mikula and Jurgen Degenhardt drawing out tong handles.