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I Forge Iron

chyancarrek

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Posts posted by chyancarrek

  1. Spent many an hour forging with Don at the Steam-Up and demos.

    He was a xxxx good smith . . . He was an even better man.

    Godspeed brother, my anvil rings for you tonight.

  2. Junker,

    I think you're on to a fine idea.

    A fella down the way from where I used to live set up two of them with a roof between and sliding door ends on the center section. He used the set up to restore the classic cars he loved to work on.

    One side was the tooling and work area, the other was racks and shelves with all the parts sorted into their various points in the process. He had double man-doors installed on both for easy access. It was spacious and he kept it very organized.

    The car being worked on occupied the center which had a concrete slab. The whole set up worked a treat!

    Sadly, similar to Windancer's story, he passed and his wife had to sell off his whole operation.

  3. Michael, If I was selling to my clientele, these are the prices I would place on them (not knowing what your overhead is on them).

     

     

    The high - low is touch arbitrary but sometimes you need to move up and down the range based on venue.

     

     

    Skull = 75.00 - 150.00 

     

    Leaf = 50.00 - 125.00

     

    Candle Holders = 50.00 - 100.00

  4. I used a website years ago . . . I treated it as an electronic "business card". It was a place for folk to be told to go not one I ever expected others to find (for the reasons Steve mentions above). I don't have one anymore, it's not a good fit for the time and money to manage it.

     

    I've always used mailing lists and direct contact to build the business one customer at a time. Now I keep all of my clients updated through regular email updates and the word of mouth business that approach generates has done pretty well for me.

     

    I haven't tried Etsy yet. The wife and I created an account last year but we haven't gotten around to dipping our toe in the water. If we do, I'll treat it the same way as I mentioned above; It's a place to direct folks to, not a place I expect people to find.

  5. Nicely done Michael . . . looks great.

    I'm thinking someone needs to start considering casting bronze. Those large scale reverse curves and compound negatives are a whole bunch easier in wax ^_^

    Do you mind if I share these pics with the sculptor I work with? He'd love to see these shapes being done in iron. They're very similar to elements that he uses in some of his series.

    Please post more as you go.

  6. Thomas, My original response in this post was said by way of being mean-spirited and strayed way off-topic. That's not what I'm on IFI for, so I've deleted it.

    My final point on this is that I think the folk of this village know exactly what's involved and the inherent dangers that exist around it. It's time honored for them and suggesting that they're doing it out of ignorance is arrogant.

  7. Didn't say it was a good idea . . . I suggested they've been doing if for a long time and they seem to be comfortable with it the way it is.
    Step off the high-horse Thomas . . . I don't think the Chinese are looking for a new nanny.

  8. Given that they've been doing it the same way for hundreds of years, we can probably give them a little credit for this not being their first rodeo.

    I read somewhere that when asked if they thought it dangerous they replied "No, not as long as you're not afraid to die . . ." :D

  9. Greg,

    The Cedar Creek Grist mill is about 4 miles from where I live in SW Washington. It's approach to powering the mill is a little different as it uses a "turbine" style set up. If you look at the pic of the mill you'll see the flue to the right which goes under the building then the "well" portion in the center underneath the building. The water fills the well. Through the use of adjustable wickets at the bottom which adjusts the RPM, the miller then can set the speed at which the grinding wheel operates.

    Fortunately, there's a very dedicated group that operates the mill here and it is open to the public year round with many events. The pic of the fellow running the mill shows some of the interior of the building. It really is a fascination to watch it all in operation.

    There used to be a cedar-shake mill and a blacksmith shop associated with the mill back in the early 1900s. I know there was talk of reconstructing them in recent years but nothing has come about as yet.

    Exterior Pic: Jodi Trip

    Interior Pic: Staff photographer The Columbian

    post-3223-0-82334200-1347822162_thumb.jp

    post-3223-0-70731500-1347822183_thumb.jp

  10. 1,000 sqft . . . Includes both metal and woodworking. It's big enough for the work as my stuff is small scale, but storage for most materials is in outbuildings. I'm expanding all of the welding/cutting/foundry equipment into a 300 sqft shed roof area so I don't have to reconfigure the existing shop every time I want to do something that fires those golden BBs everywhere.

  11. Very, very nicely done!

    Your comment about working only the bit in front of you and not getting distracted really struck a chord with me.

    I've worked with a bronze sculptor for 14 years and being able to stay with the intent of any given portion of a piece without losing sight of the whole is paramount to achieving the form.

    The signature line on my posts comes from this. When I first started with him, I was working a high detail area with die grinders and had some confusion as to what came next. He walked over and said " You can see where I'm going with that area - just focus, and Grind to the Intent".

    Thanks much for sharing your work with us. Please keep us updated and post pics when it's installed!

  12. Jake,

    The folk above have given you some good advice and made some great observations so I won't go into that.

    What did you do right? You're putting your heart into it kid! Your obvious desire to do the craft and the willingness to put yourself in front of us and say where can I do better says bunches about you.

    You're off to a great start - Stick with it and keep asking those questions and most importantly, keep listening to the answers.

    My single piece of advice is to seek out some experienced smiths near you and get some shop time with them. Given how you're doing now, you'll be amazed at how much of a difference it will make. (List your location in your profile so others' can tell where you are.)

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