AdrianWood

Hey drako, I agree with Fe-wood when he says to get a job with someone for a year or so, get as much experience as you can. This way you can also do some of your own work as well as developing your very own style. This is the way i started. I worked for Brian Russell (uk) for 3 years. In that time i was able to do my own comissions as well( mostly on evenings and weekends,) Brian was amazing in that he encouraged this. 6 years ago i became self employed. I will not lie to you, things can and have been very difficult, but they have also been very good, feast and famine! Times are difficult at the moment whatever proffesion you are in, so to attempt to become self employed right now could be difficult unless you have enough money in savings to see you through potential lean times as well as buying all the tools and equipment you will need to do the jobs. Banks are very reluctant to hand out money now so getting funding this way is also hard. Also, Loans from anyone will need repaying every month and they do not care if you have had a bad month, that money needs to be paid.! So if you can make it without borrowing money that would be better. You will also need to have in mind that you will also be the secretary, answering the phone, the surveyor, measuring the clients job, the draughtsman, drawing the job, the errand boy, the tea boy,(or coffee boy)! the accountant, the list can go on. Also, and this is a big ALSO, it will never be a 9-5 job. I am at work most days for 8. sometimes alot earlier depending on how busy i am. I work until i am tired or family comittments dictate i stop, Once home there are drawings and designs to do for clients, paper work and a list of things needed for the next day. I am lucky in that most of my paperwork is passed onto my dad who is now retired and is willing to help out. In short you never seem to stop thinking about your jobs! Even to the point of waking up in the early hours of the morning. As for getting rich, this all depends on what you want to be rich in.! money possibly not, you can make a comfortable living. But if you expect huge amounts of disposable income then you may be dissapionted! Rich in life experience, love of your job, the feeling of joy you get when you hand over a job to a client that did not think a project could be done and to such a high standard is pricless. The amazing feeling of waking up in a morning knowing that the day ahead will not be boring, mundane and repetative is something i have had for the 12 years i have been a blacksmith.! In these things your cup will overflow. Money is a necessary evil and it can vary from year to year. My best financial year was last year where i had a turnover of 55 thousand pounds. My accountant was very pleased,! I did not feel any richer than i did the previous year on less turnover! But Hey. It takes a long time to get a business going, at least 5 years, in that time you have to make contacts with local authorities, architects, builders and also private clients that appreciate your skills and talents. Once these are in place you will find that the work will come in on a more regular basis and less sporadic. But you need to constantly remind the people you are trying to impress by sending mailshots, emails, invite them to evenings at you forge where you will demonstrate your talents and invite them to `have a go`, so they can appreciate the work that goes into a job. Don`t let them forget you. give them a business card that they cannot forget! I hope this has answered some of your questions and has not put you off. I love the life i have, after all it is the only one we are given. Use it. I have always lived my life by the mantra of `its better to regret the things you have done than to regret the things you haven`t done`. Go for it. But get the experience of working for someone else first. learn the craft and everything else will slip into place. All the other stuff you need to do to run a business will be alot easier if you are not getting stressed about learning the craft as you go along by yourself. Good luck Drako, i wish you all the very best for your future and keep us all informed of your progress and any work you produce.

A very tidy peice of work you have made there. I am sure the client will be thrilled with that. Very nice indeed.

The bench is a lovely peice of work, lovely lines and a beautiful simplicity, keep up the great work. The photography on the hot scroll is fantastic.!

The anvil he has was given to me by a friend who, when clearing his barge, found the anvil being used as balast! Kai loves the fact that he has his very own anvil and hammer. His teachers at nursery cannot beleive that he works with hot metal. In theses days of health and safety gone crazy its a wonder kids are allowed to to anything at all!!.

Peat is still running the courses at the musem in a rather smaller lean to building it will be a bit of a squeeze but i am sure things will be ok and the students will benefit fromhis teaching.

Just thought i would share these pictures of my sons first full day in the forge. He is on his summer holidays at the moment and has wanted to come into the workshop for ages now. It was a very proud day and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Days like these are very precious!

It seems the layout table is causing heartache for some of you guys!! rest assured a more suitable layout table is on its way! It will be movable and be able to take apart when not in use as these things do tend to take up alot of room and create dead space around them. So as space is at a premium (as it is in all workshops big or small) most of my equipment will be movable using industrial castor wheels. Even the flypress table will have wheels eventually.!:D

yes i was. the musem have started to demolish the large building we were in and there was not enough room for both myself and peat to run our business` from just the small forge so i decided to move to a bigger shop

After nearly 6 weeks of moving out of one workshop, finding another, clearing it of 20 years of junk, boarding it out getting it wired in and getting more equipment i have actually managed to do a whole weeks work! The forge isn`t 100% there yet, still need to get my Hercules power hammer in, but other than that things are almost how i want it. Still finding places for some things to live, but i didn`t realise how much stuff i had collected! Anyway the important things are in (the kettle) the fire, presses, so it is starting to feel familiar and homely!

thanks for the comments guys, i do feel blessed and i hope the future students will get as much from it as i do. It would be great if you guys could join my facebook group for the clervaux trust site, i posted a link at the top of the page. Hope to see you sometime soon Uri.

very nice fork,stainless as well!! a real sturdy bit of equipment. bet you could get a great chunk of meat on that fella.

yes it is a magical little place and so lovely to work in. All you can hear, apart from when i start hammering!!, is the running river and the wildlife. Eventually we will be replacing the bales with hazel hurdles as the river can sometimes flood so we cannot impead the river in any way. Also i have found it takes a real effort to actually set a bale on fire! so we just have to be mindful when we are forge welding. we may even lime plaster the inside to give it extra fire protection.

so here are some pictures of the new workshop at the site i have been teaching at for nearly four months. The building was built by the students as part of a little construcion project and is only supposed to be temporary! (ish!!) We have a facebook site called the clervaux trust. Login | Facebook i think this is the link. please have a look and feel free to join. there is a discription of what we are about but also the future aims. If you do join i will be able to keep you informed of all the future events. I am also moving my main workshop so i will get some pictures of that as soon as i am settled in.

thanks to all for the comments, NO1 is my fave also, but you never know where councillers will go in deciding? Nice comment Chrispy! dying to get in! very good. I will of course keep you all upto date with any progress. thanks Again

I was recently asked to come up with some designs for 160 metres of railings for a cemetary wall in my local town. The drawings were done but the councillers needed something physical to touch and feel! so My friend Matthew Brown (another local blacksmith friend of mine) hepled me to make them today to get them to the meeting tomorrow. Matt will also share the job with me. We wanted to do something simple to forge, simple to jig up and something that will look effective on a long run.

Fantastic peices, i love them all, the forge work is exquisite with some lovely details. I really like the finish on them, is it a rust patina? Excellent work.

yes probably for the best!! Thanks for the comments really enjoyed this project, would actually like this one at my place!

yes forgot to add them but i think i edited them back in . Are they there now? let me know and i will add another thread

Garden sculpture made for an art gallery in Helmsley, north yorkshire. The finish will be galvanized with an acid etch prime and polished up. The scrolls around the base are all forge welded but all of the stems have been mig welded to the dished base.

Many thanks to all for taking the time to look and comment, the finish is just a hi build vinyl paint that has been sprayed directly onto the cleaned metal surface. By cleaned we only used rotary wire brushes on grinders. the colour used is a dark grey. Again many thanks for the comments.

Many thanks for the comments frosty. yes i believe the clients are thrilled with the work, we also fitted a very tight handrail made from 1 " bar to attach to the wall of a spiral staircase. They also want more railings and two pairs of gates!!

These are the window guards that were commissioned by our local church, they are based on the same design as the railings that were made for the exterior. The commission originally came to a blacksmith friend of mine, Matthew Brown, and he asked me if i could help him out.

Many thanks for the comments guys, the last set of gates may take some time to be fitted as a few problems have arisen!!

There are some lovely forged details on all your work and with a definate eye for a good line your work really sings! as well you can see the many artists you mentioned that have influenced your work,but you have also given it a new life and stamped your own style onto it. Lovely work and hope to see a lot more of your work.

A fine fire set and one that should not be put in the scrap bin, well done and keep on hammering!!