How much does a blacksmith get paid in a year?

Question

How much does a blacksmith get paid in a year?

Answer 1

Depends on how many horses he shoes and the part of the country he lives and works in,  

Answer 2

That depends... How fast can you shoe a horse? What kinds of horses are you working with? Are you going to work on antique carts, ironwork, etc.? How many years can you work at this job?

Blacksmiths earn about $60-75 for trimming and shoeing a horse (more if you are working on draft horses or race horses). So if you can shoe 8 horses a day, 5 days a week, you can gross about $600 a day (That adds up to about $150,000/yr.) Deduct the cost of your truck, blanks or shoes, forge, nails, other supplies and you end up with about $450 a day ($112,000/yr) before taxes.

This is a grueling schedule that would be very difficult to maintain over time. You will need to develop loyal customers which takes months if not years. Furthermore, it will take you some time to become proficient enough to shoe 8 horses unless all of them are on the same farm because you have to factor in drive time between jobs too. This is a very tough career. All my blacksmiths have been very hard working folks. (I've had about 8 over the last 30 years.)