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I Forge Iron

Sales at public smithies


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Good Mourning All
Do any of you have or know of arrangements between the demonstrator and the Park (public owned smithy) to sell their forged items during regular demos at the park? Will you share the details: name of the park, what is the split, do you run the sales through the park with commission to the smith or visa versa, do all items reflect the time period of the park, general pitfalls and things I am missing. There must be tons of stuff I'm not thinking of; your help is appreciated. -grant

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well that is a fairly leingthy subject ... depends on the event the park who owner is and what you can work out... ive been doing demos for many years usually i get the park to pay for demo or at least drop the sales price down (on a show where there are others selling) ive done a few shows geared towards kids (low in sales but they usually pay good)
and ive done things like the heritage festival (it was a great show that politics killed). the heritage festival was a bit different as they required 15% of sales but they payed for the demo... and two sets of paperwork ... the fees should only be for the larger shows (if your not bringing home 1000 dollars you cant afford to pay 100 in fees ) some shows will ask anyway and i pass on those... make sure to let them know that you do demos and that it requires a lot of work to setup for that ..on smaller venus if they cant afford to pay for a demo ask if they will waive fees for selling ... give the show a try and see if it fits with what you want to do and if you sell anything... its hard to figure sometimes which shows to do and which not to.. as far as the park and commisions are they provideing coal and steel? if its theyre coal and steel then its probably theyre product .. i have a shop in a museum setting i rent from the local museum . The shop is mine and all my equipment and i do sell there and all sales i make are mine no commision and i recently got my stuff put into the museum gift shop ... they bought it at whsl. ive heard of other setups where the museum sells theyre stuff on commision and other guys who just voulinteer and give the stuff they make to the museum to sell... It really depends on who is running things and if its state or federal .. generally federal is a lot tougher to do anything with .. good luck!
Eric the blacksmith

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My local park- cal. state park system has a running blacksmith shop staffed with volunteers. To the best of my knowledge, the park provides the steel, coal, space and large tools. The volunteers provide time and hand tools. All sales $ goes to the park.

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Good Morning All

Gentlemen, thank you for your considered responses. Do the facilities that provide material and own the production have a smith on staff? How do they determine the product line and production runs?

Thanks again -grant

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Good Morning All

Gentlemen, thank you for your considered responses. Do the facilities that provide material and own the production have a smith on staff? How do they determine the product line and production runs?

Thanks again -grant


from what ive seen no.. and the product line is whatever the voulenteer desides to make ..that system is not a real professional deal its more "ime a blacksmith i can make stuff " and someone desides to give the guy the ok to use the tools.. usually a guy that is retired or semi retired and lookin for sumthin to do... ive heard some of um will pay a little for a worker that has set hours .. also the worker can make stuff for himself ..now when i went thru sturbridge village (in 97) the blacksmith they had was one of the park rangers but calling him a blacksmith is stretching the point... it took him 7 heats to make a real ugly nail... turns out he had been hammering for less than a month...tho the tinnsmith made up for it as he really knew his stuff...well good luck with your possable new demo space...
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