Spring Hammer-In Aril 24-26, 2026
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Our demonstrator for the weekend is Mark Speery.
Mark started blacksmithing in 1985 in his parents backyard and hasn’t slowed down yet. In the last forty years Mark has worked in a wide range of different styles of work trying to make it all. For the last 27 years he has worked at Colonial Williamsburg in the Anderson blacksmith shop doing reproduction ironwork. For the last four years he has served on the board of ABANA and is currently helping with the planning of the next conference.
Mark has spent most of his blacksmithing career doing traditional work. He has forged a lot of 18th century reproductions and a fair amount of architectural iron work. He also enjoys making knives and other sharp objects from time to time. His demonstrations in the past couple years have shown a project built as it would be figured out focusing on the basics to build a more complex project, and built with a minimum amount of tooling.
The general theme of the demo will some sort of architectural piece which might include punching, riveting, collaring, welding, drawing out, and bending right angles. In Mark's own words, "It should be interesting to watch or a train wreck, one of the two!".
Mark started blacksmithing in 1985 in his parents backyard and hasn’t slowed down yet. In the last forty years Mark has worked in a wide range of different styles of work trying to make it all. For the last 27 years he has worked at Colonial Williamsburg in the Anderson blacksmith shop doing reproduction ironwork. For the last four years he has served on the board of ABANA and is currently helping with the planning of the next conference.
Mark has spent most of his blacksmithing career doing traditional work. He has forged a lot of 18th century reproductions and a fair amount of architectural iron work. He also enjoys making knives and other sharp objects from time to time. His demonstrations in the past couple years have shown a project built as it would be figured out focusing on the basics to build a more complex project, and built with a minimum amount of tooling.
The general theme of the demo will some sort of architectural piece which might include punching, riveting, collaring, welding, drawing out, and bending right angles. In Mark's own words, "It should be interesting to watch or a train wreck, one of the two!".
A Few Examples of Mark's Work:
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