Forge name

[ThomasPowers]

Plays nicely against the Red Robin restaurant chain; you are just serving up hot steel!

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Plays nicely against the Red Robin restaurant chain; you are just serving up hot steel!

Does Red Robin have restaurants in South Africa,  Thomas?

"Red Raven" even has a nice cadence I'd be making up lyrics as I worked. You know something like,

"Red Raven Red Raven the iron's really HOT.

Red Raven Red Raven what hammer what spot?"

It's good if the public can't get your jingle out of their head and keep composing lyrics to it.

The more I think about it the more I like it.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[ThomasPowers]

I don't know; I do know I was flabbergasted to find almost every fast food franchise I knew of in Jakarta Indonesia; till I thought about it: as one of the most populous countries in the world (#4 right after the USA) it made perfect sense to have the chains wanting to sell there.

Red Raven Wrought Works  ?

[Frosty]

Yeah, so I've heard. Once you've opened a franchise location in Communist China, the world is up for grabs. I'd like a Big Mac Mutton with cheese to go please.  Would you like Hummis with that?

Red Raven Wrought Work ROCKS!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dustin Quade]

On 2016-06-05 at 11:34 AM, Charles R. Stevens said:

Oh, we will be glad to make snarky comments about your forge name (all in the interests of helping you out...) but we are smiths and might just miss an unpleasant conitation that a non smith might miss. 

By the way, if they don't have any of theise, they arnt real "gamers"

I just saw this post and thought it was pretty great. For christmas i made all the players in my weekly D&D group some steel D6's and they all loved them. The owner of the store we play at even asked if i would be interested in selling them at the store but i kinda liked them being something only players in our game had. Glad to see im not the only gamer here.

[Frosty]

The first shop project in Jr. high school metal shop was filing a 3/4" steel cube. Funny how they all seemed to turn into dice. The instructor said it wasn't an original idea and suggested we break the edges and corners before rolling them. If you dropped one just right on a wooden table you could get it to stand on one corner.

Of course Mother might be a little unhappy but it was WAY cool.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dustin Quade]

9 minutes ago, Frosty said:

The first shop project in Jr. high school metal shop was filing a 3/4" steel cube. Funny how they all seemed to turn into dice. The instructor said it wasn't an original idea and suggested we break the edges and corners before rolling them. If you dropped one just right on a wooden table you could get it to stand on one corner.

Of course Mother might be a little unhappy but it was WAY cool.

Frosty The Lucky.

I was just saying how one of my players was banned from using it in their other game because i made them out of 1" square stock and when they rolled it onto the DM's table he thought it was going to dent the heck out of it. It not a problem at our game store because the table top is covered in carpet.Still makes a pretty loud thunk when it hits though.

[Frosty]

On one of our jobs I found a porthole in wreckage on shore. It's maybe 10" dia I think but it made the hands down best dice table ever. One guy, call him Jim, who used to play had the best luck with his rolls but not on the porthole. The dice bounce so violently even loading his dice didn't help. You get the same effect rolling plastic dice on a glass table but the port hole was wicked cool and had a rim to keep the dice where you rolled them. When I stripped the many years of paint off it it turned out to be bronze and polished up beautifully.

NO steel dice allowed!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dustin Quade]

8 minutes ago, Frosty said:

On one of our jobs I found a porthole in wreckage on shore. It's maybe 10" dia I think but it made the hands down best dice table ever. One guy, call him Jim, who used to play had the best luck with his rolls but not on the porthole. The dice bounce so violently even loading his dice didn't help. You get the same effect rolling plastic dice on a glass table but the port hole was wicked cool and had a rim to keep the dice where you rolled them. When I stripped the many years of paint off it it turned out to be bronze and polished up beautifully.

NO steel dice allowed!

Frosty The Lucky.

I had to look that up to see what it was and am now supremely jealous. That would be one heck of a dice table. Talk about a lucky find!

[Frosty]

Yeah, the whole thing including the through wall mounting flange, frame ring, hinges, dog, near pristine 1/2" thick glass, everything. I found it on the N. side of Kodiak Island, Anton Larson Bay I think but we drilled for a lot of harbors, break waters, docks, etc. on Kodiak Island. There are a LOT of ship/boat wrecks on Kodiak.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mbmul175]

Red raver wrought works might confuse the public don't you think ? I mean I'm still not even 100% is re what wrought means 

[Frosty]

Wrought means "worked". Still it's a valid point I suppose. How about, "Red Raven Wrought Iron?"

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mbmul175]

So you're saying that red raver wrought works would mean red raven worked works .

I like red raven blacksmithing. Its simple for the general public to understand .

Michael.

[notownkid]

The old saying of "Keep It Simple" applies to names as well, "Red Robin Wrought Iron" makes for a large Letter Head, or a very full Business Card to say nothing of a long e-mail address or Web address, or sign or mouth full when answering the phone which some of us still use!  My e-mail address stretches for a block and a half but too far into it now to change.  Trying to get it across to someone on the phone is always a pain and half the time they end up with it wrong and you never hear from them!!   

Customer will be more interested in seeing what you can do than what the name says you can. 

 

 

[rockstar.esq]

Just a thought, but there are a few knife companies that have a touch mark that have red painted highlights against a black background.  I could see an anvil touchmark that leaves a raven's profile inside the anvil as negative space.  Painted red, the raven's profile would have strong contrast against the black anvil.

Alternately, a raven perched on the anvils beak would be a neat way to employ the aesthetic ratio of thirds assuming that your raven was proportioned to the anvil properly.

 

[Frosty]

I'm saying the root meaning and origin of the word "Wrought" is "Worked".

Too long is a good point. Adding things to solve problems often creates more. Keep it simple and catchy is good and for a start up really important. Another thing to consider, will a name limit growth?

I called mine, "The Frost Works" Guys who knew me made friendly jokes and people who didn't tended to read the small print on the card. The subtitle or subject line or whatever it's called said, "Custom forged Iron and Light Fabrication."

The bold type, shop / business name covers the center 1/2 of the card in IIRC 20 pt type. Directly below is "Custom Forged Iron and Light Fabrication." Centered is a graphic of a blacksmith at the anvil. Occupying the vertical bottom 2/3 and center 1/3 of the space.

Contact info is on both sides, mailing address on the left. phone and email address on the right.

The back of my card is blank and there is maybe 20%-25% of the front blank. Partly to frame and isolate info for easy access. You don't want a potential client having to hunt for anything on your card. The blank space serves well for notes say, "Call Sunday, 5th. 9:00am." and the other side, say, "garden gate."

The back is completely blank for more detailed notes, say directions to your shop or a place to meet or whatever.

Anyhow, the suggestion to keep the name short and to the point is a good one, we were getting carried away. Saying up front it's a blacksmithing business might take you out of the running for other work you might be able to do in the future.  I used to do a LOT more fabrication than blacksmithing and it  was a LOT more profitable, faster easier and paid shop rate no guessing.

Keep your options open.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mbmul175]

11 hours ago, rockstar.esq said:

Just a thought, but there are a few knife companies that have a touch mark that have red painted highlights against a black background.  I could see an anvil touchmark that leaves a raven's profile inside the anvil as negative space.  Painted red, the raven's profile would have strong contrast against the black anvil.

 

That was the exact idea I had, I posted a scetch of that not too long ago, so it sounds good to me.

My dad does fabricating and well be sharing a building, so I don't think he'd appreciate it if I took his clients

[Charles R. Stevens]

Blacksmithing is a form of fabricating, atleast if you start doing drills and gates, if your sharing space with Dad think more on the lines of collaborateion and enhancing each other's work. Their are things that  forging dose so much better than fabrication and vice e versa. Tools, hooks, and such are one thing but architectural peices can certainly be colaberitive. He might build a gate, but you can provide forged flowers, leaves, humming birds etc. if you look at this as a partnership, then the two of you can offer a range of archetectural products

a fabricated gate, with off the shelf parts is at the low end, a combination of a fabricated gate with forged eliments is in the middle wile a gate using traditinal joinery is at the high end of the price scale. Certainly non architectural peices can be strictly your business and strictly fabricated peices are his, but trust me working with your dad can be a wonderful experiance, you can both learn and benefit from the experiance.  

[Mbmul175]

Yeah, we do do that. But then I'm a subcontractor to him and have nothing to do with his client.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Poaching clients goes both ways, lol. As you grow, work will come in where you sub out parts to him as well. 

[Mbmul175]

True. So it would be good to include it in the card , but that's quite some time away.

Thanks

Michael.

[Frosty]

I wouldn't put anything about subbing work out. For the most part a potential customer doesn't need to know that, they're coming to YOU for YOUR craft, not because you can have someone else do it.

Don't hide the fact you have subcontractors do some of the "ordinary" work, just don't advertise it. You want to advertise YOU, not the "help." Even if the "help" is your Dad he won't mind and will appreciate any business you bring in.

Don't forget you'll be bringing a new set of products into his shop. He'll be able to offer hand forged elements and processes to HIS product line. Once you've developed the skills having you in his shop will be a serious benefit to his trade.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mbmul175]

I meant I'll add the fabrication part, but that's a good point you're making.

Thanks

Michael.

[JackThompson]

Speaking of "Have your friends find ways that your business name can be mocked"

I had a software developer buddy that wanted to start a company and he chose the name "New Direction" for his name.

That was, until I said the name fast and it came out sounding like "Nude xxxxxxxx"...

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Jack, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many Iforge folk live within visiting distance.

Speaking of not realizing what different pronunciations can do to a good idea. In the early '80s I bought a new pickup truck and got a personalized lic. I read Sci Fi pretty constantly so got "MR SIFI." It was all cool till someone pointed out MRS IFI was a more likely way to read it. I still have those plates.

Frosty The Lucky.