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I've seen an iron smelting blacksmith in one of those kids medieval festival at a private school on Oahu. Not sure what they do for income.

I had a blacksmith come in on Friday and buy some bronze. The reason I think he's a blacksmith is he said "I'm a blacksmith".

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You might want to contact a farrier for general conversation/advice, but for most horseshoeing, they beat the shoes into shape cold.

A guy around here made a "good" hobby-income by making custom fireplace accessories...  grates, andirons, pokers. tongs, and other tools etc.  Not that there would be a big demand for that in HI. He also made custom yard gates and decorative "branding irons" for people.  Customers had to make up their own brand, though, like "Flying R" or "Rocking T" and the like, but now there's a "How To" on designing brands:

http://www.tscrabrands.com/design-brand.html

I remember him wisecracking that one of his customer's brand designs was so big and  complicated that it would have incinerated the whole cow.  Others would have just made them medium rare.



Maybe there's a niche market there for other iron accessories in HI.

I piddled around with it for a while.  Used a wheel rim for a firebox and a rear axle housing for a stand, plus a vacuum cleaner blower for air.  Could even weld with it. Started to build a knife out of an auto leaf spring, but never finished it.  Didn't have  a real anvil with holes for stakes and such, just a section of railroad track that I roughly shaped in welding class.

Terry, 230RN

He also made custom yard gates and decorative "branding irons" for people.  Customers had to make up their own brand, though, like "Flying R" or "Rocking T" and the like, but now there's a "How To" on designing brands:

Now there are CNC LASERs, Plasmas, Water-jets, Mills etc... Make a CAD program, drop a plate of metal on the machine and let computers and machinery do the work. We do a lot of gate art and we have made branding irons with a CAD program and Water-jet. I guess that's progress, automation taking the place of human craftsmanship.

^ "Now there are CNC LASERs, Plasmas, Water-jets, Mills etc"

Ayup.  But there ain't nuthin' like getting a coupla hunksa arn hot enuff in the far that you kin see the ripples of the melted surfisses movin' around like they wuz just waitin' to be welded together with a couple uv good ringin' hammer blows.