[TheForge] insurance

[Mike Spencer]

Two thoughts:

If you can dig enough (or get somebody to dig for you) in the right
policies, regs or other data, you may find that buried away somewhere
is a grandfather provision that makes a blacksmith shop a special
case.  That may be good (special rate for the special category) or bad
(utterly un-insurable).

Another point is whether you call yourself (for offical, bureaucratic
purposes) a "blacksmith" or an "ornamental metalwork designer".  At
one point I rooted through the US Dept. of Labor index of occupational
classifications (quite a few years ago) and learned that a blacksmith
is officially regarded (by the USDoL and anyone who relies on their
classifiication) as a blue-collar workie of limited skill, education
and ability who forges things to specifications provided by others
while an ornamental metalwork designer is a versatile, skilled,
educated professional who designs things and may *also* do hands-on
forging.  Perhaps an "ornamental metalwork design studio" that happens
to employ some solid-fuel metalworking technology might be seen in a
very different light from a blacksmith shop with a coal forge.


Jeez, I hate bureaucratic stuff. If you can defeat Them at Their own
game, so much the better.


- Mike


-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^