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Author Topic: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?  (Read 2495 times)

BrokenPaw

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Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« on: January 07, 2008, 12:11:40 PM »
I need to find a blacksmith to do a very simple custom piece for me.  The tree-and-moon symbol in my avatar is the symbol of my home Grove, and it's taken from a wrought-iron piece that BrokenMa and I bought some years back at a Renaissance Faire.

I really like the stylized crescent moon in the original piece, and I'd like to have a larger one just like it (just the crescent) wrought of iron as the headpiece for a new ceremonial staff I'm making.  The smith that made the original piece was the master of Thunderhold Forge, who is...well, not easy to get hold of; the only way that I've been able to discover to reach him is to go talk to him face-to-face at the Maryland Faire, which runs August-October.  And I need the headpiece in time to finish the staff for May 3.

Does anyone know a blacksmith willing to do piecework like this on a custom basis?  Local to Northern Virginia would be ideal (but is likely unrealistic).  Anyone at all, who is willing to work with me to make sure I get what I'm looking for, is acceptable.

Thanks in advance,
-BP
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Brad Johnson

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2008, 12:20:17 PM »
Google "renaissance fair" and search their roles for smithys.  It should get you started.

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Polishrifleman

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2008, 01:24:08 PM »
Off topic but, Broken, are you a member over at shadowgrove.com?
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French G.

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2008, 04:26:56 PM »
Any way you can post an actual picture of it?
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BrokenPaw

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2008, 06:10:03 PM »
Quote from: Polishrifleman on January 07, 2008, 12:24:08 PM
Off topic but, Broken, are you a member over at shadowgrove.com?
That'd be my home Grove, PR.  BrokenMa and I are the ministers there...

Did you hear about us from another quarter?

-BP
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Leatherneck

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2008, 12:26:15 AM »
BP, a clue that may be useful: I've been researching people to make curved stairs and steel railings for decks recently, and noticed that several in the Gainesville, VA area also seem to hint at doing iron filigree work. That might be an alternate path to search.

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BrokenPaw

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2008, 04:40:19 AM »
Quote from: Brad Johnson on January 07, 2008, 11:20:17 AM
Google "renaissance fair" and search their roles for smithys.  It should get you started.
Brad,  I'll give that a shot.  The place that did the original work was at a faire, of course, but I've been unable to find contact info for them.  Virginia Faire used to have a wonderful blacksmith, back when it was at its old location, but they changed management, and I don't believe they have a smith any more.  I'll have to cast my net wider.

Leatherneck, that's a good idea.  And Gainesville is within rock-heaving distance of my home, so I won't have to rely on e-mail and phone to try to express what I want.  Thanks...

-BP
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K Frame

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2008, 04:45:56 AM »
No problem. Let me talk to my friend David. He's a US Park Police mounted officer in DC, so he knows just about all the blacksmiths in this area.

His brother in law is also a custom blacksmith, but he's in Washington state.
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Harold Tuttle

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2008, 05:31:10 AM »
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Leatherneck

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2008, 06:57:15 AM »
Paw,
Here's a guy I found who does railing work and seems pretty entrepreneurial:

Chris at Virginia Handrail (540) 522-3673.

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Polishrifleman

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2008, 09:33:28 AM »
BP, not another quarter.  I thought your Avatar looked familiar to some searching I have been doing over the past month or so.  My sister in law is a seamstress and costume designer.  She travels around to different RF's and rents costumes.  We visited her up in the Finger Lakes of NY at the big Faire up there.  Best pickles I've ever had from the barrel wench!

Good luck, it looks like you are getting some good leads.
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BrokenPaw

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Re: Finding a blacksmith for custom work?
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2008, 12:06:29 PM »
Quote
BP, not another quarter.  I thought your Avatar looked familiar to some searching I have been doing over the past month or so.  My sister in law is a seamstress and costume designer.
Ah, so.  Yeah, there seems to be rather a lot of crossover between the Rennie and Bunny-hugger demographics (for relatively obvious reasons, I think).  I was a ren-faire costumer for a while, myself.  Small world.

-BP
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Seek out wisdom in books, rare manuscripts, and cryptic poems if you will, but seek it also in simple stones and fragile herbs and in the cries of wild birds. Listen to the song of the wind and the roar of water if you would discover magic, for it is here that the old secrets are still preserved.
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