sr peters Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 This is for the smiths that do smithing for income (full time or part time) Curious to know, but I was wondering how bad the economic down turn has affected the workloads.:confused: Thinking of putting my hobby to work for awhile while I am not working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Emig Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Right now I have a bunch of work. The only thing is this was all scheduled,contracted and deposits paid before the meltdown. As for now, the phone is not ringing with any new work/leads. My work is primarily architectural,railings and such stuff. Basically the "extras" in building. Well, when the economy goes bad, what is the first thing that gets cut out? I am looking at what am I going to do when these jobs are done, and how to "diversify" to keep earning a living. Good luck. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forgemaster Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Here in Oz, we were constantly running behind time with all orders. Every time the phone rang I would flinch answering it knowing it would be a customer chasing their order. That was pre Christmas. Post Christmas a different story, still busy, but we are on top of everything. All of our hydraulics customers have cut back on ordering forgings as have all the gear cutters, our railway customers still seem to be ordering. Time to pull the head back into the burrow let the storm pass over then stick the head out when its all passed I feel. I know our competition has gone to a 4 day week to stave off lay offs. They are bigger than us, about 15 blokes running 4 hammers ranging from 1/4 ton to 2 ton in size. We are 98% industrial forgers, I reckon locomotives still need new gear boxes, industry still needs to keep up with maintainence. It will just get harder to win quotes so we will have to sharpen our pencils a bit sharper. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelson Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Hi Mark, Diversity is my opininon vital to survive during rough times, and this concept applies in many fields of life. Nature abhores sameness phenotypically speaking, but when it comes to adapting to certain environments some individuals have developed highly specialized skills. Now, these traits are forged over very long periods of times, thousands of years in many cases, a few mutate suddenly into better fit individuals. Unfortunately, as it is the case now with this global crisis, we cannot afford much time to develop new skills. Food is needed today and every day on the table, so the only way out may be creativity, which could parallel with mutating... I worked in farming for many years, and the more consistent profits came when I grew differents crops, as the high price of one would make up for the slump of others. Undoubtly, specializing has its advantages, but personally during critic times I`d rather be "a jack of all trades and a master of none" Nelson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sr peters Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 If you looked at my work resume you would see I have done about everything to stay diversified except for washing dishes LOL. Nelson you are right, I always try to keep my eyes and ears open for unique opportunities that others seem to over look. That is one reason I am thinking of doing a little utilitarian smithing. Doing some swap meets and bartering to keep things going. Wifes chickens, goats and ducks seem to being doing better than me. But again we are taking advantage of a hot market at this period of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sr peters Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 Thats why I wonder if the smaller operations are going to be the survivors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dablacksmith Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 well as a small operator ive done ok ... i make small stuff ( the 20 -40 dollar range) and its spur of the moment sales ... even in a bad economy people can come up with 20 bucks to buy that hook for aunt martha.... or the dinner bell to call in the kids for lunch.ive not hit the road yet so cant say as far as sales for the regular shows ... added a show and it was pretty good .overall ime doing better than last year ... of course last year was my first year at the museum so people are still finding me ....I hope it continues to build over the years ..if i was building gates and railings it probably would be a different story ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reid Neilsen Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 It depends entirely on your market. You could do some market research and see if you can have a go. Decide who your market is as well. I believe that the high end stuff is probably taking a hit, metal fab people trying to do architectural might be feelng it right now, but the small items probably are the same as always. During economic depression people just arent buying as many $5,000 gates for their McMansions as they used to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dief Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 I do mostly high end gates, railings and other misc stuff. Business is better then ever. I'm booked for the next three months and still have a list of folks who want to get on the schedule. I've found that the folks with real money - and not the credit card borrowed stuff - are spending about the same as before. Fornuately I live near a ton of folks with tons of money. Dief - Desert Rat Forge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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