It’s been wonderful getting back in the swing of things this year (the hammer swing, haha). Our summer Saturday forging events were way too hot but we still had fun, and it helped our members without smithies to forge again and create their entries to the fair. The fair was a blast, with a great 10-day blacksmithing demo as well as an impressive turnout for the first-ever Ironwork Class in the Crafts Exhibit. And finally, we were back at the Spokane County Library offering a blacksmithing at the library event, pursuing our mission of providing accessible blacksmithing education and increasing public awareness. But we don’t want the year to be over just yet, and we are inviting you all to come celebrate the local blacksmithing community and help us build what Columbia Fire & Iron blacksmiths club is going to be in 2023.

On December 4, we will be putting on a blacksmithing conference that is part member meeting, part educational programming, part social, and part fundraiser. We will have a forging demo by CFI founding member and longtime blacksmith John Huffstutter, of Quailside Forge, who will be demonstrating several scroll ends and joinery methods as he creates an elaborate ornamented L bracket. We will also have a presentation followed by Q&A on planning and executing larger blacksmithing projects by CFI founding member and prolific iron gate and artistic railings creator David Kailey, of Morgan-Jade Ironworks. David Walker of Fire Iron Forge will present on the ABANA curriculum and how to work your way through the levels, if you desire to. And we will have round tables and Q&A sessions on knifemaking and blacksmithing, so you can get advice and share your own experience with other smiths. We will also have a silent auction (including a VERY nice anvil), club merch, and gift certificates for some winter classes to fundraise for the club and keep us in fuel, steel, and our liability insurance so we can host our events. We hope you will join us at our inaugural conference and hang out with your fellow smiths! We will also have Steve McGrew’s extensive blacksmithing library on-site to peruse during the event, as well as light refreshments!

CFI Members Blacksmithing Conference

Sunday, December 4, Noon to 6pm
At The Hive® at 2904 E Sprague Avenue
In Studio E and the adjoining patio
REGISTRATION REQUIRED

The Hive is an amazing new Spokane Public Library facility that allows people to “check out” space. The library even approved of our forging on-site, but we aren’t supposed to charge admission for events held here. Since this is a fundraiser for CFI, we are working around this (with the library’s blessing) by having the conference be a members-only event, and introducing $25 membership dues (or $35 for a household). CFI has always been an open club with the vague definition that you are a member if you come to events. This broad interpretation will continue for our hammer-ins and other forging events! At this time, the benefits of a paid membership include: a) Supporting CFI with dues so we can keep the fires burning and b) Getting to attend this awesome conference.

1-YEAR MEMBERSHIP & CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

(Subject to change)

Next year is CFI’s 10 year anniversary, and we will also be debuting our new Decennial T-shirts at the conference!

We will also have gift certificates available at the conference for a handful of blacksmithing classes in the new year, available just in time for the holidays!

We hope you can come out and enjoy this gathering with us and help fuel CFI to keep working toward its mission of supporting and spreading the craft of blacksmithing in our community!

1-YEAR MEMBERSHIP & CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

If you would like to attend the conference but are financially unable to support the club with dues at this time, please email our Scholarship Chair, Melissa, at scholarships@columbiafireandiron.org. It is important to us that everyone be able to access the blacksmithing education that we offer, so we are working to provide a few scholarship spots at our events on an as-needed basis.

And finally, if you would like to donate anything to our silent auction, please reach out to smith@columbiafireandiron.org before December 2nd.

CFI is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit and is entirely volunteer run. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!