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I Forge Iron

southsaxon

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Everything posted by southsaxon

  1. Thank you all for your replies, I have picked-up a few good tips on here :) I am unsure how they will organise the Lease as they are still discussing it amongst themselves at the moment, then they will send me a draught copy to look at, which I will show to a solicitor. From the discussion I had with them when I visited the site. they are only after a token amount to put towards the maintenance of the building at the moment, especially as the business will just be starting up. They will then review the lease after a period of time to see whether to put it up or not, depending how profitable the business is. I'll have several markets in the area. The first will be from tourists, buying small items - these are the ones which sell at craft shows best as well, so I will aim to make the same type of products as sell there, such as keyrings etc. I can make between 5 and 10 an hour, depending on the one, and sell them from £5 to £15 for the 3D horsehead ones I make. My brother is already on board to sell these to the public for me, as well as my girlfriend and her brother, so that should be covered - of course all this is just in the planning stage. I'm also looking at doing restoration and conservation work, which I am learning during my NHIG apprenticeship at the moment - and I have learned a hell of a lot of new stuff already, I love it! I will hopefully get a decent amount of work of the canal and river trust, which own the site, as they have canalside properties with a lot of period ironwork not only in the county but also up and down the country. After that there are commissions, but I am still trying to figure-out how many of those I might have on a yearly basis, and how much they might be worth, as there are small ones and big ones! Then, I'd like to run classes, maybe three or four a year, as I love telling people about blacksmithing, as well as there being good money in running classes. These would be things like "make your own fire poker" etc. Finally, I want to make reproductions for museums, as I love reproducing old period (or colonial as our transatlantic cousins would call them) ironwork. I am still figuring out how to develop this side of the business, but I figure it could be as simple as creating an item and sending pictures of it to an appropriate museum, such as Tommy spikes to a mining museum, etc. Of course, all of this is still in the planning stage, and I am looking at practicalities and figuring-out how appropriate each side of the business would be! Please keep the help coming as I'm really interested in what you guys and gals think!
  2. Hello everyone! I'm hopefully going to be taking over a very old forge in a heritage area. It is an old boat yard forge on a canal where they used to make the lock gates and other waterways metal work. The forge has been disused since the 1920's but has just been restored. The current plan is to run it as a business, within public view either every day, afternoons or weekends (still working this out as I'm weighing up how much I can make from the public vs how much they will slow me down) I am currently on the NHIG bursary until August and will be taking over at that point. I went to visit the place on Thursday and impressed them enough that they pretty much offered me the place on the spot, and they are currently working out a draught lease agreement while I am working-out a longer version of my business plan as well as a financial forecast. Which brings me to the reasons I am posting. could anyone give me some pointers as to how much business I can expect in my first year, maybe based on your own experience, and the current climate? I'll be setting up in a heritage area, and the yard will be open to the public, and I have worked out I will be able to make around £4000 a year selling pick-up lines to visitors (key rings and such like). I have also worked-out that I will get around 6 commissions a month of between £100 and £200 for things like window stays, hinges and suchlike. These figures are based on my craft-show results. However, I am struggling to work-out how many, if any, larger commissions I might get over a 12 month period, and what their value might be. Any help or suggestions would be very welcome! Rowan
  3. We have it in the college library in Hereford! I have made reproductions of some of the items photographed! It's such an interesting book!
  4. Hi all. Just wanted to show off what i've been making. i'm still at college and we pretty much have a dead day on a tuesday, so i've been popping into the fabrication room and building bits of forge. now we're on half term, i've bolted and welded it all together, and i'm quite chuffed with how it looks Yes, the tue iron is square, but it contains enough water to keep the air pipe cool. the slide valve is my pride and joy and works beautifully. the hood is a little off and the bottom front edges don't quite meet up, but hey. just waiting for a blower to arrive in the post. legs and slide valve are made from bits of scrap :)
  5. I am so sorry for your, and their, loss. Losing a grandparent or a parent is hard, but the loss of a child is devastating, and no words can help with the heartbreak you must all be going through, so I pray that the prayers may help you and them.
  6. Glad I could help! post us some pictures :)
  7. i use a technique Owen Bush showed me, whereby i don't forge the bevel to its whole depth. i'll just start the bevel on the edge and do the whole length of the blade, then straighten the spine, and make the bevel a little deeper, straighten the spine, etc. i think he called this the micro-bevel technique. i find that it helps to keep control of things a little easier good smithing :)
  8. bevels do that. if you're doing a double edged blade, it cancels itself out, but you have to work each side progressively as you go along. What i tend to do is curve the blade downwards over the bic, witha gently curve nearer the eye and a steeper curve towards the point, as that is the end which will curve upwards the most. or, you can rectify it as you go along, so forge the bevel, and straighten the spine, before forging more of the bevel and straightening the spine again, though this method can cause "waves" in the bevels, which you then have to work out. easiest way is to curve the blade downwards before doing the bevels, and work from there. hope this is of use :)
  9. Thanks for the thought, lol. i don't mind providing my own food, but if anybody offers me something a long way from home, i could probably do with a field or garden to pitch a tent in. a few more words about myself, to encourage you all i started off as a woodcarver, when i was 12, and moved onto knife handles when i was maybe 20 years old. from there i moved onto knifemaking and was a self-taught hobbyist knifemaker for 3 years, doing the whole lot from forging to grinding to heat treating and polishing, and built most of my own equipment. it's impossible to make a living as a knifemaker, but i had caught the fever and decided to become a blacksmith. the time was never right to learn the craft, but i still finally took the plunge this year and applied o college in hereford, where i was put straight through to the second year. i love smithing, and work hard towards the day i can set-up my own shop :)
  10. Hi all. i posted this in the general forum, but i'm putting it here as well as it seems to be where the UK smiths are at. I've been a lurker on the site for ages, and a non-posting member for a little while now. i'm a student blacksmith at Hereford college, on the second year of the technical course. At easter time we have the option of either having a three week holiday or doing some work experience, so guess what i'd rather do just posting here now to see if anybody needs an assistant around april time. i'm going to be asking some of the local smiths around home (North Wales) but don't mind going further afield given the opportunity. In fact, I would love to go further afield so if any of you could do with an assistant around easter for a few days or weeks, let me know. all the best, Rowan.
  11. LOL, HI Matt!!! yeah, me work for food. i'm going to ask the two local blacksmiths around here but i tought i'd see if there was anybody further afield who might like some help for a bit. i'm just building up the forge at the moment and i'll post some pics when it is all painted this afternoon. i've just finished assembling the bosh and tue ten minutes ago, so having a cuppa now yeaah, i'm a saxon, from sussex, hence south saxon :)all the best :)
  12. Hi all. I've been a lurker on the site for ages, and a non-posting member for a little while now. i'm a student blacksmith at Hereford college, on the second year of the technical course. At easter time we have the option of either having a three week holiday or doing some work experience, so guess what i'd rather do just posting here now to see if anybody needs an assistant around april time. i'm going to be asking some of the local smiths around home (North Wales) but don't mind going further afield given the opportunity. so if any of you could do with an assistant around easter for a few days or weeks, let me know. all the best, Rowan.
  13. Hi All. I've just joined up on this Forum, though I'm also a member of the britishblades forum as well. I am a student blacksmith at Hereford College of technlogy and started out on the second year - this is because i have been a hobbyist knifemaker for three years before that, self-taught of course I live in Wales with my parents normaly, and in a two man tent on a campsite four days a week when i'm up in Hereford. getting on the course has been a dream of mine for ages and i was overjoyed when i finally got in i'm twenty six years old and work part-time in a garden centre where i run the camping department ( in the summer, when we have one of course) hoping i can learn lots of stuff off all the people on the forums All the best, Rowan
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