Well, the horse may be rolling before the cart but it's fun to suggest and think of how and where to have a great (and different/better) convention. Any farms around the Sidney area? Might we get a tour of the old Wagner foundry and have an old employee or more come to talk to us and answer questions. Maybe there is an operating iron foundry in the area that we could get a tour of and a talk on casting methods, etc.
JB Weld, Paul, is an epoxy putty that is mostly metal and can be used to repair cracks in engine blocks, etc. Made by the J-B Weld Company in Texas. 903-885-7696 I had someone tell me that their engine had cracks around the valves and had it repaired using the JB and it worked. There are very high temps in the combustion chamber so I would think it might work on cookware though you probably would want to v-groove on the outside of the piece. I have some JB here but have never used it. Probably available from hardware and auto supply stores. JB says "World's finest cold weld. Drill it, grind it, machine it, easy to use". Being a cold fix it could be just the thing for cookware. I wonder if it rusts?
A later WAGS convention in the winter, spring or fall in Arizona would be great. Just dreaming Greg. But a convention with real "hands on", dirt, rust, grease, lye, grinding, welding, seasoning, etc. would be a lot more fun than sitting in a hotel banquet room listening to someone (and usually only "one") TELL us how he does something.
Steve