David Kailey Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 I can if i want to make a living from smithing but it requires a lot of effort, so I maintain my other company cleaning commercial Hood systems over cooking lines, this allows me to maintain my addiction to smithing. It can be done but you have to beat the streets and hustle your butt off. I would smith everyday- buy iron at the scrap yard cause it is super cheap 20-30 cents a lbs here, and i would forge things that would sell at craft shows $10-$100 bucks I would do bigger project for my house or friends or cause I had a little extra money and take pictures and have them or the pics at the shows. I put up a simple web site and cards. I stay as busy as i want to. I have even contacted other metal craftmen and rented booths around my house for $40 a weekend and advertised it in the paper and local craft shows and mini nickles. I also contact heritage fairs and events like that and demo at them and usually they will let me sell my wares and i dont have to pay a "venders fee" I don't always make much at those but I have always payed my cost and it get your name out there, contact me anytime if you have questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodWife Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 It takes about 10,000 hours of practice- not just grinding out at what you already know, but pushing yourself practice- to hit a mastery level at anything you want to do. You're 18, you found something you like doing, and if you want to make a living at it (which is completely do-able), here is my recommendation. Go to the local meetings, find every local smith, buy them a lunch and ask to interview them. Anyone who does this, does it with love and passion in their hearts, and many of them are incredibly happy to find young people who are interested in preserving these skills. Find one who's work you respect and admire, who's personality you think you can work with. Show up every day and offer to work for whatever he can do for you, offer an old-school apprenticeship (you sleep at your parents/on the shop floor/ trade in your car for a van with a mattress on the back and he feeds you), and work your tail off doing every odd job in the shop. If he says no, show up and clean and do all the grunt work, and show that you mean it and you'll do the work of three men, and do that until someone gives you an internship. Listen. Write down what they say. Absorb all the knowledge you can. Work your tail off. Ask questions. Do stupid errands, even when you don't want to or they irritate you- picking up your boss's wife's dry cleaning won't teach you anything about metal, but it WILL prove to your boss that you're willing to do something most young people haven't figured out yet- your job is to make your boss's life easier. If your boss is a successful smith, soon, you'll be working on the basic parts of things they are doing to make money. Then you'll start doing simpler assignments by yourself, with them checking your work. Then, when they are too busy with the more complicated stuff, you'll start doing some commissions solo. If you choose a good mentor, by the time you are done, you'll not only know what it takes to make metal bend to your will, but you'll also have some fantastic local reviews, a source of referrals, and a darn good start in business. I'd also suggest that you take book keeping and accounting classes at your local CC, as well as blacksmithing. If you don't have a couple of smiths in the area who can afford to take on an apprentice, work something out with them where you apprentice with one two days a week, and other for another two, and just work your tail off that way. While at the community college, become friends with a photography professer or students, or even take a class yourself. Take some good photos of your work, and go to the local architects firms. You can make a nice photo book of your work at lulu.com, print some out and leave them with the architects, go to their meetings, and get to know them. One architect who works on a dozen wealthy client's homes in a year, who loves your stuff and can tell their clients about this amazing local artist who uses nothing but traditional techniques and blah blah blah- you can fill that all in at the time- can make your career and fill your days with as much work as you can handle, until you start needing to get an apprentice. You'll end up with what you need to be successful, without the college debt, while following your dream. While you do this, you will be broke and there are days it will suck, but it's the fastest and surest way I've seen to get to where you want to be. This is basically what my great uncle was desperate for before he retired- he was a master deep mud tile setter, and there were no boys around who wanted to put in the time to learn what he did. The real craftsmen have a powerful desire to pass on their knowledge. Just prove to them that you want it. My two cents, worth what you paid for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtforge Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 I am a full time blacksmith (10 years now) and have employees also. I am a high school drop out. I started blacksmithing part time going to reenactments/rendezvous/fairs. When my kids were out of high school and I was out of debt I went full time. I was making very good money as an industrial maintenance manager but there is more to life than money. I know a lot of people who went to college and are not using their degree and/or are working alongside non-degreed people. If my bills are paid and my wife is happy (which can be harder than paying the bills) I'm happy. I get to tend the garden and orchard, cut the firewood, hunt deer after the shows are over, etc.. Last year I went to over 20 shows and was too busy. This year we're cutting way back because I can't keep up. People want to give me money for bent iron and I want to help them. B) The business side is easy to think about but hard to do. Make more money than you spend. The problem is the details. You need to know taxes, regulations and other things governments throws in our way to slow us down. But there are groups to help with this. Software and books also. And it never ends. But if you want to do this full time its part of the deal. I would suggest before you do anything find your local group. You'll have one. Go to their meetings and ask a LOT of questions. Use their equipment, forges, metal, etc.. You will need to find what you like to make. Railings? High dollar sculpture. S-hooks? You'll need to learn how to work efficiently and effectively. Start out part time while working someplace else while you learn. When you start making your name and money (you'll need both) you can decide when it's time to go full time(if you do). All this is my opinion and should be taken as such. But it's what I have learned. Your mileage will vary. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Menard Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 There is some good advise posted in this thread. Mostly the recurring theme seems to be there are dues that must be paid. I run a commercial metal shop that includes forging and fabrication. I am fielding at least a call a month, sometimes more, from people wanting to come to work for me. Most are young people who just want me to teach them how to make a sword or point them on a path to the shortest route to making a sword. Some seem to have a broader outlook on wanting to learn more about Blacksmithing but don't seem to want to put in any hard work to get there. Goodwife's post above has suggestions that would make me look harder at an unannounced drop in to the shop saying, "can you hire me so I can learn Blacksmithing?" As an involved member of New England Blacksmiths I can attest to the educational opportunities available to aspiring Smiths provided by the ABANA affiliates around the country, most quite reasonably priced. Learning Blacksmithing is not the difficult part of making money with it. There has never been more resource available to people wanting to learn, what with all the books, the internet, ABANA affiliates all around the country, and the vast amount of information contained here on this website just to mention a few. I make money with my business by being versatile. That means forging, fabricating, woodworking, leather working, repairing a little old lady's favorite frying pan, repairing girls belt buckles, and what all else folks are looking for. I have learned skills from many mentors, a significant number were not Blacksmiths. When some people ask me what I make in my shop I tell them metal work so as to not sound condescending but what I am thinking is, I make money in my shop. I do this using every trick I have learned in my life and I am constantly dreaming up new ones. A blacksmithing business is a hard one to make a living at but so are many of the others. I love doing it and getting to know the people related to it but I would likely make more money being a salesman. I'm pretty good at that too. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kailey Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Appreciate all the feedback, If you could give me a basic list of things that are necessary for your own smithing setup. A rough estimate of the price of all the items that would be fantastic. Remind you all I'm on a budget. Hole in the ground with rock, hair dryer, 2' chunk of 2" pipe-Forge >$30 chunk of heavy 1" or thicker fastened to a stump- anvil>$20 hammer-hammer >$25 new/used tongs, >$15-35 Just do it. I hear so many guys talk about smithing, know all about smithing, but cause they don't have all the "proper stuff" they never ever ever ever smith ANYTHING!!!! I dont care if you have $100 or $100,000 You can make a smithy and start making stuff that is great!!! It is and will be what you make of it. BTW this is pretty much what I started out with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice9610 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 My forge, is a bunch of bricks layed out as close as can be to a " Brake drum " forge ( they were free, laying about my yard ) . With a cheap 12 dollar hair dryer duct taped to a 2 foot length of Stainless steel pipe. I bought a file kit for 10 dollars, a 3 lb cross pein hammer for 7 dollars, and a 15 lb anvil for 22.99 ( all from Harbor Freight ) and found a place that sells Coal for 11 bucks per 100 lb bag. I Started last month, Ive been gathering items and looking into this for years, I dont expect to be able to quit my very successful day job as a Software analyst anytime soon, But the important thing is I never went to school for computers, I just dove right into them as a kid and learned and made myself better at it, Now ive dove right into Blacksmithing and the same thing has happened, It has wholly consumed my very limited free time. If im not at work, sleeping, or raising my kids, im outside smacking orange hot metal with a cold chunk of metal. Welcome to a good addiction, For me, its a stress relief... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 maybe someone should start offering smithing as therapy for those in IT like those places that do paintballing as team building weekends for managers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice9610 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 HAHAHAH .....I wish , Although I think at my work they might actually consider it considering the company started as a Mining and Minerals company ( I work for the HIS division of 3M ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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