Following on from YouTube DIYers

[Jethro_uk]

Cracking tale of 17 year old lad who's making money as a blacksmith after posting clips online.

Stories like this give me hope for the future.

[T i m]

It is good (maybe not so much for the neighbours. ;-)

Also, "I had so many orders, I was even thinking of taking someone on."

This was the position daughter was in with her chainsaw carvings, especially the 'ready sellers' like mushrooms or pigs, to the point where it might be worth buying them in from the far east, defeating the whole 'locally made by her' thing.

She 'enjoyed' making a few, often of different shapes and finishes (some finely finished, her 'Poshrooms' <g>) but didn't want to 'have' to make them, especially when trying to fulfil orders from a local garden centre.

So our young blacksmith, rather than having the extra responsibility / costs of taking someone else on but looking to carry on making stuff that could have his name on would either have to tell people there is a waiting list (not an issue in building up 'value' / demand for those willing to wait for a 'one off' item) and / or put the price up to manage demand that could be small / short lived in any case and to capitalise on such.

It's what happens next, when the neighbours have had enough and he has to pay for a unit and all the gear, rent, services, materials and insurance will he find out what he *actually* has to charge for a whale bottle opener that took him an hour to make. ;-( [1]

Good story though, even that he wanted to give such a go.

I'm not sure if he had a mentor but a mate was a real / traditional career blacksmith and I'm sure would have loved to help guide him along the way. That said, if he's not doing any conventional work where there may be 'proper techniques / procedures' (making cart tyres etc) then trial and error / Youtube may be good enough. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] I saw something on a bodger, making traditional chairs in the woods and they asked him how much a chair cost. He didn't answer directly but said 'I need to earn £10 / hour and the chairs hake about 50 hours each to make ...'.

So I guess it all depends if you have enough people willing to pay those sorts of prices for a hand made chair (to use / as an investment) or just want 'a chair' and can get one cheaper from Ikea or the Far East.

[Max Demian]

A *real* blacksmith would make the iron/steel ("good iron") from the ore.

[Jethro_uk]

He's only 17 FFS.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, he wouldn't. Smelting is not smithing...

[Ian Jackson]

A 'real' blacksmith would start by first mining the ore.

[Jethro_uk]

He's only 17 FFS !

I know I can be ubercynical at times, but really guys, is this necessary ? I thought there would be some celebration at the sight of at least one teenager doing something interesting and practical.

Maybe time to rename the group uk.oldgits ?

[Fredxx]

Have you recently suffered humour failure? I thought the posts were funny.

[Jethro_uk]

Ah, well, maybe the past year has taken a toll.

[newshound]

Agreed.

I recently bought a little single burner propane forge (much cheaper on eBay than Amazon). I find blacksmithing very satisfying even though my forging is only marginally better than my welding. I only use it for making custom brackets and gate stays and the like. I have not tried using it for silver soldering yet (I usually do that with a small stack of vermiculite and other bits of firebrick).

[Adam Funk]

Impressive!

[Adam Funk]

I optimistically assumed they were meant that way. Smelting & smithing have been separate jobs for a long time.

[Max Demian]

Well what is it, then? The (pre industrial revolution) device to do it was a "bloomery", so did a "bloomer" practise "blooming"?

[Mike Halmarack]

In anticipation of my youngest daughter's birth I made a hand carved cradle from oak and upholstered it. Such was the obsessional level of detail it took me about 4 months to complete. A couple of years later I took the cradle to a local furniture outlet and asked them if they thought it was saleable. "Yes indeed" was the reply "£90 each for as many as you can make".

[Richard]

That should get him to the wankery to practise.

[Richard]

Has some interesting stuff on his etsy and seems to be doing well.