September 17th was a glorious weather day for Jim Dietrich’s scale gathering in St. Charles, MI. Although the temperature was on the cool side, 28 people enthusiastically “showed up” to look and learn about scales, and enjoy friendships, new and old.

Everyone was really delighted to see our past president, Peter Laycock.

Jim’s scale collection is one of a kind. Every type of scale imaginable is housed somewhere in barns and trailers, and he doesn’t have just one example of a type of scale. I saw at least 12 egg scales that looked the same, but had slight variations, i.e., color or egg size. That is just one example — there were many more too numerous to mention.

My favorite scale, however, was a pitch fork that had a scale in the handle for weighing, but to my dismay there was only one. All we can say, Mr. Dietrich, is WOW!

Lunch was a WOW, too. The Michigan Scalies provided delicious homemade salads and desserts to go along with the scrumptious chicken provided by Jim. Many, many thanks, Jim, for hosting, Joyce too!

After lunch Jack Mickevich gave a demonstration on how to remove chrome or nickel from brass.

He used equal parts of muriatic acid and water in a plastic container, submerged the item to be stripped, and then gave the solution a charge with a battery while moving a copper spatula back and forth in the solution.

I’m told the process is the opposite of electro plating. For more details, contact Jack or Jim!

Next year Utz and Shirley Schmidt will host the event at their lovely home on Lake Huron.

Don’t miss seeing another outstanding collection of scales. Date will be announced later. Also, don’t miss the 2012 ISASC Convention May 17th – 21st in Pittsburgh, PA. Les Firth and his committee are putting together a fabulous program.

Donna Schoenly