Thread: Northern Michigan Seminar

I'm thinking about putting together a Northern Michigan seminar for this July. It would be similar in scope to the Ashokan Seminar (www.knifeseminar.com), except all about razors only.

The idea would be to have top razor makers and honemeisters come and lecture and demonstrate. This would not be the "Tim Zowada Show".

Northern Michigan is a great place to visit in July, with plenty of stuff for the family. If there is enough interest, I"ll start putting it together.

Are you in the UP or northern mitt? I would love to do this if time and money allow.

This seem like a great idea to me. I am looking forward to it.

Charlie

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Are you in the UP or northern mitt? I would love to do this if time and money allow.

It would be in the Petoskey area, about 40 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge.

If I have the time and can swing the travel, I'd love to be there.

making a post, so that I can be subscribed. It is about a 4-5 hour drive for me and I will have to swing it by SWMBO. However, with the interest from those so far it would be hard to miss. We have some great members and vendors in Michigan already, even better if they can join!

I will be there for sure if work permits. It all depends on the weekend it falls on.

Sign me up!

How many days, cost, lodging....the usual questions.

Randy,

Thanks for your interest. right now I am planning on Friday evening through Sunday Lunch. Lodging will be at local motels, or rustic camping on my property. If we have enough interest, I will check in to a hotel package deal.

The current plan is for a free, or nearly so, seminar. A lot depends on what the demonstrators are willing to do. I don't plan on making any profit. The purpose is to share information, and make new friends, for all involved. We may all get together and order subs, or pizza, to make a couple of the meals easier.

If this goes well, my hope is to move it to a local camp, with lodging, and food service, next year.

The format will be similar to the Ashokan knife Seminar here: New England Bladesmiths Guild 2011 Sword Event

I just have to tweak it for razor stuff. I've been the director for the Ashokan Seminar since the 90's. The concept and format are well proven. We just need to get enough people coming. I'm planning on setting up a Constant Contact page for registration, next month.

I hope all this helps.

Tim Z.

The number of days looks a lot like what we have experienced with other razor meets in Ashville, NC 2009...Mid-Mo Meet in 2010 and 2011 and this last razor meet at Mike Blues.

The popular events were the honing demo's ( with microscopes attached to the computer) and hone reviews & hone try out. Displays of razor collections. When the equipment was available forging, grinding and heat treating were also very well received. Razor restoration was also of high interest. A demo of making a small billet of Damascus would probably go over very well.

For me this will be a 500+ mile drive each way. It looks like the number of days would make it worthwhile.