primtechsmith Posted December 5, 2005 Share Posted December 5, 2005 In my very limited demonstration/craft show tour it seems that S hooks are the best sellers! I am in the process of making some different style S hooks from different sizes, materials, and decorative ends. Hoping to increse sales of the best selling item! Any suggestions would be cool! From you guys' experience what seem to sell the best for you? happy holidays all! peyton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan@modernblacksmith Posted December 5, 2005 Share Posted December 5, 2005 gone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted December 5, 2005 Share Posted December 5, 2005 Railroad spikes into knives will keep the interest going. :idea: Once you have the technique down, you can turn out three per hour with a moderately fancy handle and a blade that will cut bread (no file or grindstone required). 8) My record for a simple blade, without fancy handle and it did cut bread was a little under five minutes from the first strike 'till dousing in water - however, that day everything went perfect (made $50.00 on a bet). :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primtechsmith Posted December 5, 2005 Author Share Posted December 5, 2005 RR spike knives also sell really good for us as well. When we demo the other guy makes those and gets the crowd really involved watching him make those and roses. What is the magic money price that seems to go well for you? It seems for us a lot of things come out to be around 20 bucks.... peyton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Something that goes with the decour of a double wide for under $20. The BIll Epps rule of sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan@modernblacksmith Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 gone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Flint 'n steel fire kits always go good. You can burn the paint off of Altoid boxes and make a decent looking tin, load it with a fire-steel, a flint or two, and a few strips of char cloth. Some days I have spent more time demonstrating fire making than blacksmithing. But they do sell good, especially if you have a bunch of pyro Boy Scouts on the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogvalley Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Dont' shoot too low guys. My biggest selling forged and welded items are Trees and cattails. Coat trees sell better than plain decorative iron trees, but both do well. All stand about 5-6 foot high. Cattails as wall hangings are the best seller right now. $150 to $500 range. My "other" line of welded and brazed sculpture out sells the forged work, but only because it retails for $19-$100. Have both low and high end pieces available. Targeted price points are everything, but don't neglect the high end work. Half of the sales ($ for $) at this past weekends show were high end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 I wholly agree with Ffrogvalley. Remember, if we start out selling too low, it becomes almost impossible to charge more later. All too often I have heard comment that someone else can or has sold a similar product for less. My reply always is "well, perhaps you should buy from him/her, because that is (often) less than the cost of the steel alone." The people that whine and snivel the most about the price normally have more money than twenty or more of us smiths - those people can get stuffed. The reality is, yes, there are a FEW smiths out there who do sell their products for less than the cost of the raw materials. Do not worry about them, those people never had any intention of making a dollar in this manner, most likely, they are simply enjoying the satisfaction of blacksmithing (like us all). Charge an honest price, no one will ever fault you. . Other items to try: -apprentice nail (with the wide, peaked head) one about every fourty seconds is about right -common nail -miniature horseshoes -hoseshoe puzzle (if time permits) -demonstrate the larger hoseshoes - complete with heel and toe caulks -oxen shoes (how many of us older beggars know this?) -simple gate hooks -simple horse bits (remember, steel isn't good for a horse's mouth, if you have the material - and the skill, you can forge a simple bit form silicon bronze with elementary rings of bronze... your fire will pee poo-poo'd for forge welding until you clean it out properly after) . by mentioning some of these, others will also remember other simpler projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 My best seller last Stater Fair was a rasptle snake made from a used farriers rasp with bottle caps threaded on the tail for a rattle. I have a swage that starts the curve in the rasp reall well so it's fairly fast and easy to role it into a tube for the body. I was getting $25 for them, no finishing it's supposed to rust! Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Thomas P, I have a friend that sells this type of rasp snake for $35or$45 each (cant remember exactly)....ya might think of upping yours some. I saw them whilst out there back in Sept. and they look great, well worth that price. Although I personnally like the snake without the bottle caps. Just twist the 'tail' a couple times or so then flatten out the top and bottom giving a pretty realistic rattler look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Thomas P. What's a "Stater Fair"???? are they fun?, do they have cotton candy? a really fat pig? wondering minds want to know!! HEHE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 I used to make 'Rastapharin Rasp Asps..... they seemed to be popular 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 It's interesting what sells and what doesn't. I participate in a large handmade crafts show every month and all the vendors must make their own pieces. Very nice stuff is available at every space. Most of the 80 or so vendors do more than $1000 on a weekend - I have not done that much yet but came close a couple of times. Last weekend, my neighbor (who does wood work) sold 43 cutting boards for $20 each in 1-1/2 hours. He only sells about 6-7 lines of items with the highest thing around $400 and regularly goes over $1000 in a weekend - this time he did $2250 and Sunday was lousy for everyone because of the weather. I tell all of this to illustrate what someone at a craft show can do if the public wants their product. I offer some unique, forged cross designs that I have not seen elsewhere. I place them on the edge of the table closest to the walkway and everyone who stops to handle them comments positively. The price has always been $40 and I sell 3 or 4 during every show. However, over the past weekend, I didn't sell a single one on Saturday. Sunday morning, I dropped the price to $30 and sold 5 in about 3 hours. It appears I found the pain threshold for this item but the question now is whether I can make any money selling at this price. An acquaintance of mine does not go to craft shows. He makes a line of simple crosses that are similar to mine in size and sells them for $120 each. Another friend sells high end knives - they start at $1500 and go up. Both of these guys subscribe to the philosophy that they only have to sell to a select few people who don't care if the piece is $100 or $200 - it's disposable income in either case. I sell about 25 to 30 different lines of product at this craft show and no one thing does better or worse than another, although I have a few stinkers that have never sold. I give these away to my relatives... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Texans! And yes there was an enourmous hog on display right next to the SWABA smithy trailer, as I understand it they complained that the smiths were drawing flies... I priced my work to sell it out and did so. I'm happy. Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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