Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For blacksmiths

Blacksmith hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance blacksmith should charge, starting from the income you need — then builds the per-piece prices clients actually pay out of real forge hours. Nobody books “an hour at the forge”; they commission a gate, a knife, a pair of railings that will outlive the house. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $80 an hour, $640 for a full day at the forge — and the conversions that price is built from: a hand-forged knife is about six hours at the anvil, $480 of labour, and a pair of gates runs about twenty-four hours, $1,920 — with special steels and finishes billed as their own lines on top.

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The pricing reality for freelance blacksmiths

Forge work is bought per piece and earned by the hour, and the two only agree if the piece price was built from the hours in the first place. The quote is given from a sketch and a site visit, weeks before the steel is cut — and the piece then takes what it takes: the gate that meets an out-of-square wall, the commission whose design changes at the third drawing. A price copied from the last similar job carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the forge hour first, and the piece price becomes an assembly: so many hours at the anvil, at a rate that adds up.

This is a fuel-and-rent trade. The forge is lit before the first billable strike and burns whether the day produces a commission or a course, and the workshop rent arrives in the quiet months too. The work is lumpy rather than seasonal in the simple sense — gates and garden pieces cluster in spring and summer, courses and small work fill the winter — and the lumps hide the true cost of the slow commissions. The presets below use a 60% billable share: the hours at the anvil bill, and quoting, site visits and steel runs take theirs first.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $52,000 target income, $14,700 a year of expenses — forge rent leads, with fuel, the steel float, tools and machinery, insurance, the vehicle and marketing — a 22% tax estimate, three weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 60% billable time. Special steels and finishes beyond the working float are billed to the piece as their own lines, as the maths section explains. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $80 an hour.

Your numbers — blacksmith presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs blacksmiths forget to put in the rate

  • Lighting the forge. Heat-up time every working morning, and fuel burned keeping the fire alive between heats — coal, coke or propane consumed on days that produce a finished piece and days that produce only progress. No commission is ever billed for the fire that made it possible, so the rate carries it.
  • The steel float. Bar, sheet and tool steel bought by the length and held in the rack before the commission that uses it is paid for. A float is capital asleep in the corner of the forge — and the offcuts every job leaves are its quiet tax.
  • Quoting from sketches. The site visit, the measuring, the drawings for a gate that may never be commissioned. Big pieces are won or lost at the drawing stage, and that stage is almost always worked for free — the rate is what quietly pays for it.
  • Tool wear at the anvil. Hammers to dress, tongs to adjust, grinder discs and belts that vanish, the power hammer’s servicing. Forge tools wear slowly and bill suddenly, and the bill arrives whether the order book planned for it or not.
  • The course day. Teaching fills the winter and brings people to the forge — but a course day priced below a forging day is a hobby subsidised by your commissions. Priced against the same day rate, it is a second product; priced by enthusiasm, it is a leak.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the blacksmith presets — three weeks off, 40 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,176 billable hours a year: the hours at the anvil that clients can pay for, once quoting, site visits and steel runs have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $66,700 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 22% estimate, divide by 0.78 to get $85,513 — then add your profit margin to reach $94,064 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $80, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the per-piece prices clients actually pay. A hand-forged knife is about six hours at the anvil — forging, shaping, hardening, finishing — six hours at $80 is $480 of labour. A pair of driveway gates runs about twenty-four hours, $1,920. And a day spent teaching a course has to be priced against the same full day at the forge, $640, or the course is paying its way out of your commissions. Special steels, galvanising and finishes sit on top of those figures as their own lines: the client chooses them, their price is the client’s, and burying them in the labour figure would hide both numbers from both of you.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Blacksmith rate questions

Because the piece price is built out of forge hours whether you count them or not: the drawing, the forging, the fitting, the finishing. The hourly rate is how you check a price you quoted from the sketch — or copied from the last similar piece — against your own rent, your own fuel bill and your own order book. Blacksmiths who skip the check often find their busiest summer was their worst paid, and the piece prices, not the workload, were the reason.
Because the anvil is not the whole week. For every hour forging there is quoting, a site visit, a run to the steel merchant, and the forge itself lit and cleaned. Sixty percent is a realistic start for a solo smith. A forge running set production pieces day after day bills a higher share; a commission forge with heavy design work bills less. Set the number that matches your diary, not your best month.
Standard bar and sheet from the float, in practice yes — the rate keeps the rack stocked. But the steel a client chooses can run from mild bar to pattern-welded billets that cost more than your labour on the same piece, and its price is the client’s choice, not yours. Bill special steels, galvanising and finishes as their own lines, at cost plus a margin for sourcing and standing behind them; the hourly rate carries the labour, the forge and the fire.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.