Nate Thiessen

Luckily I am in Montana so there is no sales tax. I do have a record for my online sales with proper invoice, but I do not have specific record for my booth at the town fair.

I have one very similar to this, except the burner is on top. The only issues I have run in to is heat loss, heat treating larger knives, and doing projects that require a wider opening. The heat loss can be somewhat prevented by placing a fire brick against the opposite opening. If you are looking to drown out some of the noise, nail egg cartons around the room. The part that holds the eggs works as a sound dampener. I once had a quiet room that had egg flats checkerboarded on the walls and ceiling. Also I have found that neighbors tend to be more tolerable of late night shop noise if they get a free item and an apology note. I have worked till 2 am and have had no complaints from neighbors, and all it cost me was 4 of my first horseshoe hearts.

I have been wanting to sell some items online through etsy and facebook, as well as go to a couple of farmers markets, however I am not sure about where the line is between selling items to fund a hobby, or when it becomes a business that the IRS can put their hands in to. According to a FAQ (or one of the discussions, can't find it now but when I can I will post the ling) on etsy, it is still constituted a hobby so long as the income does not exceed cost, and is not used as a primary income. If I wanted to have a booth at a farmers market or at a fair do I have to have a business license? What is the line between hobby and business for blacksmiths who are selling items?

This is a perfect example of where "special show price" really matters. I ran in to a similar issue this summer at my first show where the only things that sold were the items under $10. I had table with my blacksmith items, my wifes cakes, cake pops, and face painting, and a buddy of mine who does wood burning using 2000 volts of electricity. We made back what we spent to even have a set up thanks to my wife's face painting. I had made a bunch of horseshoe hearts, garden trowels and bbq meat flippers, and all that sold for me was one heart. If I do it next year I will probably make a bunch of smaller items and sell the hearts for $10 instead of $20. Typically when people go to a market they are there to browse, see the talent, and pick up a few small things (usually for a friend who would really like that).

So I have had a couple of buds ask if they can come over and swing a hammer. Should I have them sign some sort of liability waiver and take them through a training session before they pick up a hammer?

Thank you all for your responses. I will score the face up a bit more and try heating it up and giving it a scotchbright treatment. As for Ferriers I have to wait for a couple weeks for when our horses get their hooves taken care of (never been shoed so that's why I don't have naturally stressed ones). Thank you all again for your suggestions and I will be sure to give them a try to find the best method that works for me for future orders.

I have had a customer request a stressed metal horse shoe. As I understand she is looking for the dark scale hammer marks and for the metal to be weathered. So far what I have done is take a ballpein to the shoe to texture it, and then heated the whole thing as hot as my propane Forge could go and quenched it. From there I used a wire wheel to clean off the loose scale. I sent a picture to the customer and they want it to look even more weathered. What method am I missing to give the shoe a more stressed and weathered look? Acid bath perhaps?

Looks like it is going to be a great shop! Hope it doesn't get too hot in there for you though.

I've worked with Fjords for a number of years and learned that they tend to favor their right (at least my few have). One stud in particular though favors his left since he has poor vision in his right eye. Once you work them evenly though then they don't really care.

Upon receiving my new forge from Devil Forge, I realize that my issue with the paint can was forced air. The small vents that are built in to the tubes are not meant to draw in the amount of air needed in order to get the heat required. Anyway, the image is of my current shop set up. Have to start somewhere right?!

I would assume however, that if I was to remove the current regulator on the hose, that would eliminate the fuel restriction so that I could get a hotter flame. I will give that a try so I can have it operational at least. Oh well, either way I broke down and picked up a forge on eBay for $180. I figure if I'm going to spend money on a burner, it might as well come attached to a pre-made and tested unit. Thank you for your input and investment Frosty! I am looking foreword to moving on to where I can actually work metal and stop fiddling around with just trying to get a heat source!

So I have a few concerns with this build. The first is the amount of flame that is flaring out of the opening (I only have an opening at the front). It comes out enough that it licks the air holes on the front tube. So because of that I don't use the front burner since that sends up a red flag for me. I will make note that the hole where the front burner goes in is not as snug as I would like as I had some metal jump on me when I drilled it. I am also not getting the heat that I need in order to move metal, and that is with both burners on full (had a makeshift shield on the front for a bit but it kept falling off). Would anyone have any suggestions? I have noticed too that my mortar has bulged after having the forge on, so my original semicircle design has become a grotesque oval, almost tight butt hole like. Third picture has both burners on full. The other thing I am thinking I may have to do is remove the BBQ regulator on the hose and replace it with just a hose extension and bottle hook up.

Thanks Frosty! I just had them loose so I could get the wool and cement in. When everything is finished it will be mounted on a portable fire proof base. Haha the door knobs were from spare cupboards and I didn't have a set of 4 nuts and bolts, but the knobs ended up working perfectly!

I have just finished laying the refractory cement in my paint can forge, and it is now sitting out to dry for the night. So far I am only $51 in to this forge: $27 24"X12"X1" Ceramic wool from Amazon, $21 Refractory Cement from Amazon, $4 1/2" black steel nipples, and $1 for BBQ burner. Originally I was going to use a Benzomatic burner which would have cost me around $20, plus those little camp BBQ propane tanks which in town are about $3.50. That was the plan till I went scrapping with my buddy who is teaching me how to blacksmith and we came across a BBQ that was still in good condition. So I grabbed the hose and burner from it as well as some spring steel all for $1. We figured "hey, it's a burner, I can get two jets out of it, and it has all the necessary requirements (propane nozzle, a place for air to be induced, and a tube that can withstand heat)... Why not?!" As you can see from the video below it actually works pretty darn well! We shall see how it works tomorrow! IMG_2068.MOV

That is beautiful! How long did it take you to make?