What do you like to make? Not just what you make to sell, or to demo but what do you really enjoy making?
I like making axes and tools. It sounds funny but I enjoy making rings and chain..I enjoy working with wrought..
Lately we have made some hawks/axes by using wrought for the body and jump welding a piece of 1045 on the poll for the hammer poll and welding a high carbon bit in for the cutting bit..Those are fun to make....

My favorite thing right now is fredricks crosses. They are quick, easy and people love to see something made within their attention span.

Making steak turners are fast and easy and no two are the same. BBQ forks are easy and teach me to have patience when doing the tines.

I am really enjoying making tools for my own use. There is a good amount of satisfaction when I make something that I can use and it actually works .

Candle holders make the wife happy and that makes me happy.

Mark<><

I really enjoy forging roses and other flower forms. Like Mark, part of the fun for me is giving them to someone and seeing their reaction. I also like making tools for myself and other people. Working on a set of "hook" tools for my brother, who likes to turn wooden bowls.

I enjoy making American Colonial everyday house hold items. Especially the fire steels. I get most of my ideas from 'Colonial Wrought Iron-the Sorber Collection' by Don Plummer.
This book hasnt been on the book shelf since I bought it, stays by my desk by the pc.
I've made trammels,toasters,button hole cutters, ladels,forks etc....
I've made fire steels in the shape of anvils, hearts, leafs and even one for a friend of mine in the shape of The Jetsons rocket car. My wife has one mounted in bone that I scrimshawed with her initial on one side and a fler-de-lis n the other. Made to be worn like a necklace.Reckon I'm a frustrated pyro?

I'm really starting to enjoy making pattern welded steel. I'm still just figuring things out so I haven't really made anything out of it except the odd trinket, but I really love the moment when you pull a piece out of your enchant and you have an amazing pattern on it when it was just a plain looking piece when it went it.

I also love building my own equipment. Right now I'm just finishing a treadle hammer, have a rolling mill half done, and am just starting on a belt sander. I usually run a linebore set up at work so while I was waiting for a cut to finish on the boom I was boring out, I spent the 20 minutes cutting time working on belt sander pieces on the near by mill. Boss doesn't mind, it means I get all the shop work for the day on the mill done sooner so I can work on my own stuff . Nothing better than working on your own toys on company time.

Bottle openers and organic shapes, leaves flowers etc, seems to be 2-3 hour type projects are what please the urge.

I've enjoyed making medieval and renaissance cooking equipment for a bunch of people interesting in recreating that era.

While I do enjoy sharing old school demo time when I'm with a group of folk who are really into what they're doing, truth be told, I don't particularly "enjoy" blacksmithing. For me, it's a means to an end along with fabrication, wood working and casting. I guess the best way to put it is I enjoy "having" forged something. I love the end result, seeing what was in my mind's eye come into physical being.

I enjoy doing organic items,trees, flowers, vines ect.

I enjoy making a living out of blacksmtihing. That I can provide for my family the things that they need to live, by doing something with my hands that I enjoy doing.
Phil

I really enjoy making small, quick items as giveaways at demos. Anything like a Fredricks Cross, Twisted S-Hook, or Leaf Key Fob works for me. I've made enough of these that they don't take too much thought or planning, and I can talk and entertain folks while making them. Nothing better than seeing people's faces when I hand them a souvenir that they just watched me make, especially when they aren't expecting it. Next would be making my own tools. It's a real kick using something that I've made myself to help make something else.

What I enjoy the most has to be dragon heads, they all seem to have their own personallity, you can play with the mouth, eyes, ears/horn to change his expression (happy, angry, etc...).
What I hate the most are special orders with precise instructions wich leaves no place to let your imagination and creativity flow.

Naz

lateley i enjoy makeing stuff ive never made before the more complex the better! i also enjoy historical items colonial and earlier... ive started makeing the tools out of the mastermir find ... neat stuff!

What I enjoy the most has to be dragon heads, they all seem to have their own personallity, you can play with the mouth, eyes, ears/horn to change his expression (happy, angry, etc...).
What I hate the most are special orders with precise instructions wich leaves no place to let your imagination and creativity flow.

Naz

I do like your dragons!

Mark<><

I do like your dragons!

Mark<><

Thanks Mark !
Here's a quick step by step that's already in the gallery :

Naz

I like to make anything in the forge, but projects that involve a forge weld just trip my trigger. I dunno why, but I have always enjoyed the heck out of any variety of welding, and took to forge welding like a fish to water. Sometimes I'll incorporate a weld into stuff "just because I can". I am one of those guys who 9 times out of 10 will reach for the wire brush and can of flux before I reach for the MiG or torches.

Tools. I make all the other stuff to pay the expenses. Restoring tools is usualy almost as rewarding especialy if they were free, or bought as scrap. The more tools I make or fix, the more jobs I can do to buy tools I can't make.

Mostly practical stuff from American colonial period...forks, spoons, ladles, trivets, fire-strikers, etc. I've made a few knives, and while I enjoy the forging, I don't particularly enjoy the finishing aspect. What really trips my trigger though, is making tools...tools for the smithy, woodworking tools, etc. I've also made several decorative items for my wife...candle holders, plate holders, plant hooks, etc. I enjoy those because my wife likes them. I have a buddy that says "Happy wife, happy life!" I have to agree with him. bart

I'm like most everyone else Tools I really like making tools and jigs to make tools

Tools.I like to make things that will expand my possibilities or the potential of others.

My second favorite thing to make is anything useful and with an organic feel that someone else will appreciate.I appreciate good tools,but then we already covered that.
Third is something unique and functional for use on a custom bike.

Lots of Money!!!
Sadly that is less often than I would like these days.
But I get great pleasure in making sucsesfull tools/machines however if/when they don't work as intended the novelty/fun is somewhat diminished!

Ian

But I get great pleasure in making sucsesfull tools/machines however if/when they don't work as intended the novelty/fun is somewhat diminished!

Ian

You need to start thinking outside the box Ian.
You can leave those rejects in your competitions front yard or parking lot(blocking as many spaces as possible).
Treat them like some people treat anvils and use explosives to see how high you can launch them.
Place them on sandbars near busy waterways.
Haul them out to the middle of the desert and couple them up to false power poles(complete with coin box) you install next to them.(come back in a month and I bet you`ll find coins in the box).

The idea is to use them in ways that make people go "WHAT THE!!??"
Novelty and fun abounds,especially where mass quantities of alcoholic beverages are used for inspiration.

PS-Be sure to remove any ID plates or markings before implementing any of these suggestions.
PPS-When they come to question you forget my number. B)

i enjoy layout and design what really turns me on is the perfect scroll aint made one yet in 30 years of trying but have come close

I have to admit that I like to be successful. It seems to have a significant effect on the outcome of my projects. I still enjoy making mistakes and learning, but when an idea becomes reality, that gives me a good feeling.

I'm a woodworker by trade, but for the past 9 years I've also been seriously into bladesmithing, and l really like playing with the pattern weldng. I've made a lot of billets of pattern welded stock, some came out great, some not so great, but the actual doing and learning is the fun part to me. Aslo, I've enjoyed blacksmithing since 1988, and during that time have just mostly made the smaller items for my store where I sell the woodwork to. I always told my wife that when I started getting ready to retire, I was going to tool up for blacksmithing, and really enjoy the rest of my life. That's what I'm doing now is getting odds and ends to help me in my blacksmithing, while still being a woodworker. The ol addage that everybody has said at one time of another, "I enjoy working with my hands", well, actually there's a lot to that saying. One other thing I have enjoyed doing is being on this site. I feel very welcome, and comfortable here, and just can't believe the diversity of items being build by the lot of you, not to mention the knowledge contained herein of you guys and gals.