Just saw this tonight.  Joey van der Steeg, aka Technicus Joe, is apparently quitting blacksmithing professionally.  I don't know where this link should go, so I just put it here.  I saw this as news, not tailgating, even though he is selling his tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCp86SQuYIA

 

Sad news, we wish him well.

Where ever he goes they will benefit from his being there.

Yes sad, I wonder if he will continue blacksmithing as a hobby?

or come back to it in the future...

Seems to happen with You Tube blacksmith more than it is the norm.

I wonder if it is the craft or the exposure. 

A psychologist would say that clearly he does not want to sell his tools the way he is sort of hiding them in that video ... but then again I am not a psychologist

I wish him all the best. He will be missed ... like others that preceded him. 

He's keeping the 330 lb. Refflinghaus and some wrought iron pieces and is inclined to keep a big swage block. 

I noticed that every time he said he was quitting (both in the video and in the comments), he always qualifies that as "quitting blacksmithing professionally". Does anyone know if he was smithing professionally before he took over the smithy in France? 

I watched a video of his once where he fire welded two bits of 1/2 square bar. No flux, one hit. Anyone who can do that has my admiration.  I wish him well.

On 11/8/2017 at 12:42 PM, JHCC said:

I noticed that every time he said he was quitting (both in the video and in the comments), he always qualifies that as "quitting blacksmithing professionally". Does anyone know if he was smithing professionally before he took over the smithy in France? 

I talked with Joey right after his announcement.

He did quit the professional smithy in France and has moved back to Holland.  I don't know if he actually bought into that company or was simply given the opportunity to work there full time.  Without going too much into our private communique, I think Joey's happiest with smithing when he can do it his way -- that means only doing forge welds and not getting into projects that require more modern wielding and lots of grinding.  Again, my take on things after chatting with him.  I can understand his frustrations, but the market is what the market is.  

 

Yeah he came out with a another video after the one announcing he was quitting, to discuss pricing on his tools. He mentioned he would continue blacksmithings as a hobby and that he was keeping his 330 lb reffinghaus.

Thanks, @VaughnT. Much appreciated. 

I can understand it. Doing it for a living maybe taking the fun out of it after so long

4 hours ago, Jasent said:

Doing it for a living maybe taking the fun out of it after so long

More precisely, doing it for a living when you have to compromise how you think it should be done. That’s one reason I’m not a professional woodworker any more. 

Joey’s explanation:

 

 

I think that was explained well.

Very well indeed!

That's a respectable reason(s)

Well said, Joey.  Sounds like you are trading "fab" for "fun".  Go have some fun while you are young!!

Not bashing Joey, but I think this is a good "teachable moment" for folks.  Joey is not wrong for wanting to stick with the "traditional" techniques, but that does limit him in what he can produce and market, and that limits how successful he can be.  I support his decision to go back to hobby smithing because that's where he's happiest and where he can actually do the things he wants to do.

Business is what the customers want, not what the makers want.  It's a hard balance to strike, and often folks get confused into thinking along the "Field of Dreams" idea -- if you build it, they will come.  I wish!  I build lots of things, but finding customers for those things is a chore of Herculean proportions!

Customers always say they want to support the arts or support the mom-n-pop shops, but they run to the mass-producers in a skinny minute when there's a dollar to be saved.

Very well put, @VaughnT. I think this shows Joey discovering his vocation as a true amateur -- someone who does it for the love of the craft. 

Every artist faces this conflict some time or another. To do what the customer (market) wants ... or to do what the artist wants?  I wonder what Michelangelo thought of his customers?  Would he condemn today's painter who buys his colours from the artist supply rather than making them with dirt or whatever was available hundreds of years ago ?

Amateur or professional, traditional or modern are all relative concepts and even mean different things in different languages ... and those concepts shift all the time.

To find the balance is the real test. I remember a friend who was a great chef but had to close his restaurant because his customers did not understand him, nor his attempts to "educate" them. 

Is there a point in producing art that the market does not want or does not buy? Sure, if the artist has other means of income.

However the reason for producing art form of any sort is to communicate a  message. Peace, love, despair, aesthetics, functionality, dysfunctionality are just some of the things the artist means to convey. Sure there is plenty of examples of hidden art. The Japanese paint the back of their cupboards, Van Gogh painted on crumbling walls of cabins.  Who are we to say how it has to be done? 

Still  ... it seems like a waste to me ...

 

Wow, Deja Vu all over again!  Back in the early 1980's my job as a geologist in the oil patch went belly up with the irregularly cycled boom&bust and I decided to work for a year under a top American swordmaker; no pay but 2 meals a day with the family. (Living off my savings in an old trailer parked on a Farmer's back 40...) At the end of that year I got married at age 28 and assumed responsibility for a wife and two kids and we started one of our own as a joint venture. Anyway I had to get a "real job" tm.  One of my luckiest experiences; because I too had learned that while I loved the craft as a hobby I was not suited to do it as a business.  AND I was able to not find this out by running myself into personal and fiscal bankruptcy!

 Technicus; I salute you for making a hard decision *before* you messed up your life and if you ever wander down this way, (El Paso, TX), I have a guest room...

I think this is particularly worth sharing

 

 

THANK YOU!

I think a lot more people in this world need to follow that advice 

thank you for sharing that video