[TheForge] Re: File Making, sniffing up wrought iron

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

I had the same problem too expensive to test...now i'm feeling 
stupid and squinting at Wagner's price list.
I'm a genuinely inept business man regarding my own work.
Oddly i could probably do a near passable job for someone else.
PF

Jerry Frost wrote:
> I was more than a little interested in trying Pure Iron but they 
> wouldn't send me a few lbs. to try. I forget the exact amount but it was 
> in the 50 lbs. range as I recall. Shipping to AK made that a deal killer 
> for a trial. I offered to pay whatever it cost for S&H but they wouldn't.
> 
> Sent me an Art and Metal "T" shirt though.
> 
> I think a good part of this has to do with most modern blacksmiths being 
> artists rather than iron workers. I've only met a few artists of any 
> kind able to manage business well.
> 
> Frosty
> -------------------------------
> If it ain't forged
> it ain't real.
> Wrought iron is.
> The FrostWorks
> 
> Meadow Lakes, AK.
> 
> 
> From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
> 
> 
>>
>>
>> David E. Smucker wrote:
>>> If there was a market it would be made.  We all (blacksmiths) like 
>>> working with things like pure iron and wrought iron -- but we don't 
>>> want to pay for it.  Pure Iron is the perfict example.
>>
>> I fully agree.  Furthermore, the "failure" of Pure Iron in the market 
>> was an indication more of the lack of a business clue than any fault 
>> of the material. People saw cost as high.  I disagreed and attempted 
>> to explain to them the idea of cost effectiveness, but apparently 
>> those people were either not bright enough to get it, closed minded to 
>> the notion, or I simply was too stupid to explain it properly.  I'll 
>> go with the latter.
>>
>> By and large, I have found most blacksmiths to be highly 
>> clue-challenged where issues of basic business management are 
>> concerned. I've never hidden my opinion on this.  A material such as 
>> Pure Iron, if properly marketed, could be sold at a premium 
>> (offsetting the additional material cost, which in the grander scheme 
>> of things is almost trivial in any event) and its superior workability 
>> would save the smith in terms of labor cost.  Apparently none of this 
>> ever sank in and Mike's endeavor went toe-up.  I thought it was a 
>> shame, but the market spoke and that was that.  I don't know whether 
>> Mike & company engaged in sufficiently effective marketing, so some 
>> fault may lie there as well, but I have learned to never underestimate 
>> the boorishness of a market.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>>
>> -Andy V.
>>
> 
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