[TheForge] RE: Steel prices making us obsolete?

[Ries Niemi]

Oh, Stephen, dont get the future of making things confused with the 
cost of steel- yep, steel is getting more expensive, but so is 
everything else.
And plenty of people are making lots of money along the way.
A certain percentage of those people with money will always appreciate 
hand made, quality objects.
There have never been a LOT of blacksmiths, or other metal craftsmen, 
who made wonderful things- but there have always been a few.

Right now, China is the Number 2 importer of expensive luxury goods, 
worldwide, and they expect to hit Number 1 within 5 years.
The chinese buy more Mercedes cars, Gucci, Pucci, Versace, Roxex and 
Louis Vuitton right now then you can imagine.

And all of that stuff, with only a few exceptions, is mass produced- as 
more and more chinese already have that 2000 dollar purse, they are 
going to want new, and more unique ways to show the world their taste 
and money- and thats where we come in.

Fences and gates, furniture and candlesticks, knives and serving 
utensils- blacksmiths and metalsmiths can make things nobody else can.
The current state of machining is 95% young kids programming CNC 
machines- its all subtractive, without any Hand/MInd interaction with 
the material.
Blacksmiths, with our constant volume approach, and with our years of 
experience before we learn not to hit our own thumbs, have a distinct 
advantage.

When steel costs go up, you raise your prices.
Materials costs on high end work should be below 10% of the price, 
anyway.
And materials costs get passed on to the customer.

If you can make wonderful things, there will always be a market for em.
Now I just gotta practice enough that some of what I make turns out 
halfway wonderful.

By the way, I am a member of the Finnish Diaspora- my finn great 
grandparents came over to Minnesota in the teens, fleeing wars, the 
russians, poverty, and expensive booze.

Ries




On Dec 29, 2006, at 1:58 AM, Stephen Viola wrote:

> Well none of you are setting a pretty picture about the future of self
> employed blacksmiths. Still I suppose as we are at the lower end of
> the metal trade scale we can always use someone elses junk metal. I
> suppose all we have to do is raise our prices as suited.. then it's
> the consumer that cops the cost at the end. Poor bastards! :o)
>
> I couldn't even imagine what 1,9 million tons of steel would look like!
>
> Stephen
>
Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com