Every year around this time, things start getting a little crazy here at Wicks Forge.

The weather gets colder, the days get shorter, and our workshop starts filling up with a whole lot of metal that needs to be turned into something useful before the holidays roll around.

Now, I love the holiday season. There's something pretty special about knowing that the things we make here in our little workshop are going to end up under Christmas trees, in stockings, and in homes all over the country. It's one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.

But there's also a slightly terrifying statistic that comes with it.

Nearly 50% of our annual sales happen in the final three months of the year.

That's right. Roughly half of everything we sell in an entire year happens between October and December.

Unfortunately, October doesn't come with a magical doubling of our workforce. We still have the same number of hands, the same number of hours in the day, and the same stubborn pieces of steel that refuse to bend any faster just because Christmas is approaching.

So, as we head into another holiday season, I wanted to share a little about what goes on behind the scenes, why some of our products will inevitably sell out, and what that means if you've had your eye on something from our shop.

A Little More About How We Make Things

For those of you who are new around here, Wicks Forge is a small blacksmithing business operating out of an old dairy barn that we've been slowly transforming into our workshop.

And when I say slowly, I mean slowly.

Over the past few years, we've done everything from replacing roofs and running electrical lines to installing machinery and dealing with the occasional flood. All while somehow continuing to make and ship thousands of pieces of hand-forged metalwork. It's been an adventure, to say the least.

But despite all the changes to our shop, one thing has stayed pretty consistent. We make our products ourselves, right here in the forge.

Our hooks, bottle openers, kitchenware, fireplace tools, and all the other oddities we dream up don't arrive at our door in boxes from some distant factory.

We start with raw materials, heat them, hammer them, bend them, cut them, weld them, finish them, and eventually turn them into something we're proud to put our name on.

Some products are relatively straightforward. Others, like our fireplace tool sets, involve dozens of individual components and a frankly unreasonable amount of work to get just right.

Over the years, we've developed specialized tools and processes to help us make things more efficiently. We've also grown our team and made some pretty substantial improvements to the workshop. But there's only so much you can speed up a process that fundamentally involves making things by hand.

And we wouldn't really want to change that part anyway.

The Trouble With Making Everything Ourselves

One of the interesting things about running a small manufacturing business is that you spend a surprising amount of time deciding what you're going to make next.

We have a pretty wide catalogue these days. There are hooks, gardening tools, kitchen utensils, drinkware, fireplace accessories, and a whole assortment of other things that have accumulated over more than a decade of blacksmithing. Unfortunately, we can't make all of them at once.

Most of our products are made in batches. We'll set up the shop to produce a particular item, make as many as we reasonably can, and then move on to the next thing.

This is a lot more efficient than bouncing between completely different products all day. Different pieces require different materials, tools, setups, and processes, and switching between them takes time.

And time, especially during the holidays, is something we don't have a whole lot of. So we do our best to plan ahead.

Over the years, we've figured out which products people favor during the holidays. So when we get to this time of year, we have to be selective about what needs to be restocked, and plan ahead to make sure we have enough once the holiday rush arrives.

Some years we get pretty close. Other years, a product we thought we'd made plenty of suddenly becomes everyone's favorite Christmas gift.

Which is wonderful, of course. Until we realize we've sold three months' worth of inventory in two weeks.

Why Sold Out Might Mean Sold Out Until Next Year

Here's where things get a little tricky. When a product sells out in March, we can usually find a way to work another production run into the schedule over the following weeks or months.

When something sells out in November, it's a different story.

By that point, we're generally running at full capacity. The forges are hot, the hammers are swinging, and everyone is doing their best to keep things moving.

Making another batch of one product means taking time away from something else. And with a small team, there aren't a whole lot of spare hours floating around. As much as we'd love to keep every single product in stock throughout the holidays, it's simply not possible.

That means that once certain pieces sell out this fall, we won't be making more until the new year.

Not because we're discontinuing them. We just physically can't make everything fast enough. And while we've gotten pretty good at stretching our capabilities over the years, we haven't quite figured out how to add more hours to the day. If anyone has a solution for that, please get in touch.

So, What's the Plan for This Holiday Season?

Well, we're making as much as we can. We've been preparing for the holiday season for months, building up inventory and trying to make sure we have a good selection of our most popular pieces ready to go. But there are a few goodies that we won’t be making more of this year.

If there's something in our shop you've been thinking about buying, whether it's a Christmas gift for someone else or a little something for yourself, I'd recommend picking it up sooner rather than later. Shopping a little earlier gives you the best selection of products, gives us a little more breathing room in the workshop, and helps everyone avoid the annual December scramble.

And if you do miss out on something, don't worry too much. We'll be back at the forge in the new year, replenishing inventory and making more of the things you love. I

Thanks for Keeping Us Busy

Before I wrap this up, I want to say how grateful we are to everyone who supports our little business. When I started blacksmithing, I certainly didn't imagine we'd eventually be making and shipping thousands of pieces every year, or that we'd have customers all over North America.

It's pretty incredible to think about.

Every order that comes through our shop represents someone choosing to support a small team of people making things by hand. It allows us to keep practicing a craft we love, developing new products, improving our workshop, and occasionally getting ourselves into ambitious construction projects that we probably should have hired professionals to handle.

We don't take any of that for granted. So thank you for keeping our hammers swinging and our forges burning. And if you've got your eye on something, now's a pretty good time to grab it.

See what’s selling out.