[TheForge] Need shop space?

[ries]

A couple of years ago, I visited this shop, Cambria Forge.
It is amazing. And, if you were serious, you could get in there and  
work.
But, and its a big but, it would require a lot of money, and a lot of  
jobs, to make it viable.

I run a relatively small business, with up to two full time  
employees, and myself.
I have a fair amount of machines, although nothing compared to the  
hammers in Cambria forge.

And I know what my overhead is- utilities, labor, taxes, consumables,  
materials, and so on.

To keep a shop like that running, I am guessing you would need at  
least 5 guys, and to gross somewhere above a half million a year.  
Probably better if you doubled that.

And that is assuming you got a really good deal on rent.

Imagine the expense when one of those hammers goes down.
Imagine the amount of support equipment you need- bandsaws, grinders,  
drills, plasma and oxy fuel, ironworkers and forklifts, machine shop  
and  fab equipment.

For somebody, it would be great.
But without a really go getter of a very successful blacksmith, I  
cant see that happening.
And there are probably only a dozen guys in the country who have the  
skills, the experience, and the business smarts to make that happen-  
and they all already have big shops, roots where they live, and  
contacts.

Johnstown itself is a depressed area, to say the least- not a lot of  
$10 million dollar houses being built there that need a couple  
hundred grand in ironwork.

For that shop to become vital and working again, my guess is only a  
school, or a government sponsored program would work.

Its a very cool place, though.

ries




On Jun 9, 2007, at 11:15 PM, Jerry Frost wrote:

http://www.jaha.org/BlacksmithShop/restoration.html
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

http://www.artmetalradio.com/

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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/