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I Forge Iron

Newb Setup for Wood Tool Making


Kooky

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Yup, you hit it on the head.About everything you said about being a farrier is why I chose it. I knew that I could, within A short amount of time, have a successful business and, most important, spend most of my working time with hammer and anvil. And I didn't take it as a challenge. 

But you lost me on the schooling, Or perhaps I lost you.  Schools for both farrier and blacksmith obviously exist and I have attended both. Generally speaking they fall under the heading of craft schools. They all run around 6 weeks and cost about the same. However, when you finish a farrier class, or even spending time with an old codger crusty ancient farrier, technically, you are prepared to create a business and you can, most likely, qualify for some financing. Not so when you finish a blacksmithing class, or even learning from that equivalent crusty blacksmith. No institution in its right mind would lend you a dime, and properly so. Heres another Turley one liner: Spend the first 10 years as a blacksmith or a farrier and the farrier will make far more money hands down, but the second 10,,,,,  Why? because no matter what, you can only do so many horses a day.  Thats the upper limit to your income. So whats our blacksmith doing that first 10 years? Metaphorically speaking, struggling with a business making and selling nails and "S" hooks!  And then, by some sorta magic, that Dr you are talking about above knocks on your shop door and asks for a railing. If you are lucky after that 7-10 year timeframe, you can with confidence say $300/ft and 3 months to completion,,, 1/3 down, 1/3 in the middle and 1/3 on completion. Now our blacksmith will start "making money". Frosty, I call this 7-10 year period my own self imposed Journeyman time. I attended as many workshops and demos as I could and offered my labor to other smiths for room, board and transportation. And economically my business slowly began to grow. During this second 10 years, it didn't take much time to match my Farrier income,,, And I didn't have to bend over a horse.  ;) 

My purpose with my post is, as I said above, to give encouragement to those who might want to pursue smithing for more than a hobby or extra income. I believe, even here, that when that question is asked, reasons for not, or well meant plans that are pathways to failure are given. This is good and important because knowing the boogers and traps is critical, but with no positive input, all you are doing is encouraging folks to not try it. 

In this day and age, to become a working craftsman of any sort is very challenging. There is no pat answer to how to do it. Its very personal.  Of all the craftsmen I've known, we seem to all have 4 things in common. Desire, Determination, and dedication. The final is a large amount of confidence in the essence of the self.

 

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We're just using different terms, "Journeyman period" or "paying trade dues," same same. It's the time necessary to turn "raw" knowledge and skills into refined knowledge /  skills and build a reputation /  clientele. This is pretty common through out the trades. So is the employee who only stays around till they THINK they're good enough and start their own business and you have to find another one. 

farrier/artist blacksmith is one of the few near perfect trade combinations. The career curve is mirrored and has an intimately connected set of skills. 

I wasn't trying to discourage anybody, just as you said pointing out the pitfalls and traps. A hidden trap is hard to avoid, even then a person has to have pretty poor business plan, skill sets, attitude, etc. for a single pit fall to kill the business, it usually takes a number of them.

I think the biggest mistake my parents made was believing in the handshake. Had they payed a lawyer to write up a partnership with assigned responsibilities the person pocketing the taxes might have had to take the hit. As it was most of the hard assets came out of our pocket. Or just a CPA would've done it but NO, we can "trust" Zipperhead. Poor planning on the folk's part couldn't protect them from a couple poor decisions. 

I take your point anvil, I do come off as awfully negative when I'm only trying to point out the pitfalls. It's probably because I watched a really successful business crash and take us down with it. The pitfalls start looking like canyons. Avoidable but they're everywhere.

I have to work on that.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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