Blacksmithing for a living.

[Bwilloughby]

I was thinking today about what I should do when we finally get settled in North Carolina in July/August. One thing that came up was how would I attract work.

Do I just make stuff and Ebay it? do I post fliers at store Bulletin Boards in hopes to get some work. Do I put ads in the local Newspapers to attractr work.

How do those of you that do this for a living attract customers?

[HWooldridge]

I can guarantee you that a website is useful but does not work by itself - I have not tried Ebay. I have been doing this part-time for about 22 years and did pretty well years ago just by word of mouth. My regular day job got very busy about 10 years ago so I let the blacksmithing work lapse. The day job went the way of so many other American jobs in December 2003 so I decided to pursue it fulltime...my best month has been June and I made a little over $1000. I don't do big gates and fences so am limiting myself to household hardware like fireplace tools and such so that might be a handicap. However, it seems that the local craft shows are where I need to be and so I am starting to make one or two a month. I think word of mouth is the best advertising for folks like us so make good products and your customers will come back and tell others.

[Glenn]

Decide what you want to do, and then make the things you enjoy. One type of sales will not support your challenge. You will have to use every method available to get your product out and in front of the public.

[Quenchcrack]

Acouple of years ago I wrote an article on Bill Epps for The Fabricator. You can read the article here:

http://www.thefabricator.com/Articles/Fabricating_Exclusive.cfm?ID=2

Bill Epps is probably as good as they come at Commercial Blacksmithing...and he is no longer in business. Although I don't think we have seen the last of him by any means! :D

[Glenn]

Great Article Quenchcrack.

Bill is still in business as a blacksmith. He also sells educational tapes on blacksmithing Forged Animal Heads, Bugs and Birds,
Leaves and Flowers, and just came out with a new book on how to make things from iron (critters from angle iron as I recall).

Bill Epps web site

[Bwilloughby]

Great information Thanks alot fellas :)

[sandpile]

I was reading this months WESTERN HORSEMAN mag. In the article on renovating an old house place on a Southern Colo. ranch.

Howard McCall of Greenville S.Carolina was mentioned as being the smith that made the hinges and latches for the old buildings.

I looked the pics over as well as I could. All I could see were a couple of BIG hingestraps and one set of window pulls and part of a latch on the same window.

Here is a smith in S. C. selling his wares in CO. somebody had to know each other.GRIN. You never know where your next job/work will go to.

I went after a colt the other night and sold $450.00 dollars worth of spurs and a knife. It was a profitable trip. You never know where you are going to pick up a sale. You just have to keep telling people what you are doing and have some samples with you at all times. :wink:

By the way--I had a email returned yesterday to BILL EPPS--Reason---over 500 email on his site.--Grin.... He is not checking it very often.

Chuck

[Quenchcrack]

I heard Bill was back in some kind of business but I know he sold his shop just outside of Dallas. Anyone know where he set his anvil down? :|

[Glenn]

Bill is back home in Mesquite, TX.

[bruce wilcock]

as regarding finding work ,if you try to cover too big a range of skills in your early days, your work will not develop its own style ,so work on a small range and try to target a market for it ,the shot gun ad approach is fine for big companys but a single man the market will find you in time your style will be your advert,,

[Bwilloughby]

if you try to cover too big a range of skills in your early days, your work will not develop its own style

Good thinkin, so say if a new Blacksmith tried to learn Horse shoeing, Knife makeing, and Home designs. hes in for a lesson of biting off more than he needs. I will keep that in mind. I have been focusing mostly on decoration type things, thing that will/can go on gates and fences.

[Ed Thomas]

Bruce Willoughby: There is nothing wrong with trying to support your new habit. But you've barely begun to prod the very edge of an enormous new discipline. There is room for selling knick-knacks to tourists, but like all skills you MUST get the fundamentals down in order to make things well. That takes time and dilligence. It will rapidly become a J-O-B if you just chase the dollar and don't work to master the craft. That's when people reach for fabricating solutions. Trying to find the fastest easiest way to make the minimum product to pass on to people that "don't know the difference".

"Git 'er done" is funny... but is wrong.

So... to answer your immediate question, do simple elegant things perfectly. You can sell drive-in and nail-in hooks fairly easily. If you make a few hundred of those, it will give you the chance to zone and watch your hammer technique. There is actually a lot in those things for you to learn.

Make functional things, such as plant hangers, pot racks, curtain rods, and towel racks. Do them simply and RIGHT. Make dozens of them. If you can make them all alike, you will be making serious progress. You'll see your control improve and your understanding of the forging process deepen, while having something to sell when you are done.

The high-end customer is out of your reach. The low-end customer wants something for a $20 bill and some change back. And they want something they can justify. So make it functional, simple, and clean.

There is a craft co-op near me, as well as a store that doesn't demand a whole lot of commission. When you get to NC, look for for outlets that you can supply. Join the nearest guild. Most of my low-end stuff comes from contacts there. People passing people on to me. The higher end stuff comes from other contacts I've developed from doing work.

The appeal of ironwork is tactile as much as visual. Until we can market in 3-D on the internet, I doubt it will ever be a good selling medium for iron.

[Bwilloughby]

Understood sir.

[Glenn]

Pick one item you like to make. Make 50 good ones and put it on your shelf as stock. Move on to item #2 and make 50 of those, etc. You have to get hammer time invested in each product to find out how the metal moves and now to make it most efficently.

If the piece has a bend, do the bend by hand till you develop the skill and feel for the bend, then move to the bending jig or machine to do the work faster. This hands on learning will serve you well at your first demo as you will know how to work without the jig and machine.

This would be a good time to start a notebook on how to make the item, length of stock, bends, etc. Later when you need more you will NOT remember all the details. Besides, if you send your notes and some photos, we can use them for a Blueprint. :wink: Then you don't have to remember where you put your notes, just go to the Blueprints Section of IForgeIron.com :D

[HWooldridge]

I'll tell a funny story on myself...I came out of manufacturing so I normally do what Glenn suggests and write work instructions for everything I make, including what jigs I used, photos, stock sizes, etc. I tell people that anyone with mechanical aptitude should be able to take a set of instructions and make the piece. At any rate, I was playing around one weekend and made a nice item that I really did not intend to sell. I took some pics and put it on the website anyway just to add some "fluff". Months went by and I forgot about it. My son came home from college one day and said, "Oooh, that's nice - can I have it", so I said 'sure'. About two weeks later, someone ordered it from the web page. I had no instructions or dimensions recorded so I had to call the boy and have him Fed-X it back to me. I did what I should have done the first time and wrote down how to make it then shipped off to the customer. Now, I have to make another one for the kid.

I don't make one of anything (with the above exception :!: ). I make runs of various items and try to always keep some stock on hand.

[Strine]

Mmm I thought I posted a reply on this thread this morning...whose the computer dill then?

What I wrote this morning before a day of drudgery at the grindstone was quite eloquent and well phrased Sadly you must now put up with ...end of the day drivel.

Basically I was relating an observation that the bloke who looks like he has a lot of skill at the anvil seems to sell a lot more.

So agreeing with Ed and others, make what you are really good at even if it is small and simple. Selling your stuff on consignment means it has to sell itself but if you are by your forge, you can enhance the buyers experience with a show of the skill required (and what a good bloke it was that made the particular trinket). In other words you would be tapping a branch of the souvenir market.

A fellow I know turns over thousands of $ by selling miniature horseshoes with kids initials or names stamped thereon, at so much per letter. The shoes are made off site and merely heated up enough to sizzle a bit in the slacktub in front of little Johnny.......Oooooooh mum, mum, mum can I have one of those please. It goes against the grain a bit but it's not my place to knock the concept, it sure does make money to feed his kids though.

Another good way to make money out of your blacksmithing is to sell blacksmithing tools like tongs. :wink: The good thing here is that the market appreciates the time, effort and skill required and is more willing to pay a reasonable price.

[Dan Crabtree]

Im 15 yrs old as some of you may or may not know. Ive been blacksmithing just as a hobby for the last year or so but im ussally in the shop 5 days a week or more, No strict religion to what i do. You may walk in my shop and find me making a crossbow one day come back a few days later and im making an iron card table. I did a show not to long ago and sold stuff I made in the last two months. The show was very small but i brought in 425 dollars. Well, being as im 15 half of it has been spent on stupid stuff,girls,ect. but the rest is going into the shop. I make ALOT of steak turners, a few bbq tools, and roses. Right now im trying my hand at making a crossbow but dont plan on me ever doing that again its a pain haha. Summer has slowed me down a bit but im learning to deal with it. One of my friends was complaining because I made more in one month selling stuff than he did working at Mc Donalds. My family is actually pushing my to carry out blacksmithing as a career. Thats just my little story.

Bruce, not to be rude but I would suggest learning the a bit of the other areas of the trade and not just one. I dont mean dont try to persue all of them at once as a career but while its still a hobby learn them because they will probally be useful, Learning heat treating from making knives is very useful when making custom tooling that you may need for decorative jobs. But I agree very much with not trying to be a full time Knifemaker/Gunsmith/Ornamental Blacksmith/Traditional Blacksmith If you want to be full time, im just guessing here I really have no personal experice, but I would stick with just one of those.

[Don A]

...half of it has been spent on stupid stuff,girls,ect.

Enjoy it while you still get to keep half. One of these days you'll get married.

:wink:

[Bwilloughby]

Thanks Dan,

How many times in ones life do you hear "If I only knew then what I know now."

I will be the first to tell anyone that I need practice. I am in no way trying to force all the information and technique into my head at once. It will only lead to disaster, hurt feelings and force me out of this trade. I have been looking into finding a Smith I can Apprentice with when we finally get to North Carolina.

[Glenn]

When your hair starts to hurt from study, take a break and let the mind absorb the knowledge. Move over the the forge and try it out to see if it works. Adjust the technique as needed to get it to work for you. When the arm gets tired from all the work, it is time to study again. :wink:

[Don A]

I've not been able to go yet, but this would be a good place to start when you get to NC:

http://folkschool.com/blacksmithing05.shtml

[Glenn]

Earlier I suggested to Bruce that he make 50 of any one item and use it as shelf stock. I may need to reconsider that approach.

My dear sweet darling wife is in the planting mode. She made a deal with the local farmers market to take the seasons left overs of flowers and load them into her van rather than the trash dumpster. She them took the money saved on the plants and bought hanging baskets, dirt, peat moss, fertilizer, etc. etc.

It seems that with all these new hanging baskets they need hung around the porch, the breezeway, and other areas of the house. She ask if I would make her some s-hooks. I said that I had some in the garage, no she had used them. I said that I had a few in the truck that I carry with me to have handy, no she used them. I said I have the shelf stock that I try to keep for demos, and there was a pause, then she said no she used them also, and unless I had some more somewhere, she still needed about 7 or 8 more s-hooks to hang the remaining baskets. She prefers the short ones as it "looks" better to have a daisy chain of 3 or 4 s-hooks holding each basket - so it will be pretty.

Oh yes, she also got the 2 matching shepard crooks that I had powder coated for display. I ask why those two and she said cause they were the pretty ones.

New advice:
You may be better off renting a small building to store your 50 pieces and your shelf stock, in order to protect it till you can get it to the demo.

[Ed Thomas]

Glenn: Excellent!

I'd say that's a much better version of spousal abuse than something like: "How come I get the rejects?"

Not that... um... anyone I know would have any reason to be... ah... er... accused of that.

[Bwilloughby]

heheh, Glenn thats good stuff.

I had a few of the pound in hooks I learned to make in Madison (I would make some each time I light the forge, just for warm up) till my mom happened by and was looking at my workshop. I need to go get more material and make some more.

I am awaiting a new sensor for the car and I ran out of mild steel, I have afew RR spikes and some chunks of track left. Though I dunno what I'm gonna do with the track. It's 2 peices one is about 4" long and the other is about 6".

[Glenn]

Use the 6" piece as a cutting block when cutting things with the chisel.