Cooper Smithing Co.

Cooper Smithing Co. Visit the website: www.CooperSmithingCo.com

Used to be I assumed everyone liked me, and I didn’t pay attention to the times I was wrong. Now days I assume nobody li...
08/19/2024

Used to be I assumed everyone liked me, and I didn’t pay attention to the times I was wrong. Now days I assume nobody likes me, and I still don’t notice when I’m wrong. I think you try to get to a place where you realize nobody is paying attention to you in the first place, they just give you back what you’re giving.

The people who want my work like me. The people waiting for my work hate me. The people who get my work give me love.

I spend a lot of my time in the hate business, and Im working real hard on that.

Fork legs are just like fenders in that I started building them because they’re hard to get right, and nobody else wante...
08/05/2024

Fork legs are just like fenders in that I started building them because they’re hard to get right, and nobody else wanted to do it.

Figure there have been a lot of crashed bikes since 1940, and a lot of strange fork mods done in the 70’s, people might need a section of the tapered oval tubing that gets mangled. I think I’ve made these in every size from stock all the way up to +15” extended.

08/02/2024

You never see this style much in the world anymore, figure I’ll just need to build it. Something like this fender, only narrow, and put it on an early style motorcycle that isn’t much more than a motor on wheels.

Duckbill, reverse lip, swoopy flippy end. I’ve heard it called a lot of things, but it’s still my favorite style offende...
08/01/2024

Duckbill, reverse lip, swoopy flippy end. I’ve heard it called a lot of things, but it’s still my favorite style offender. Offender. Of. Fender. Talk to text is trash.

Trade me something old for this fender.I got my start in the motorcycle world building custom bikes in a club affiliated...
07/30/2024

Trade me something old for this fender.

I got my start in the motorcycle world building custom bikes in a club affiliated shop (further details will not be mentioned), but my real life has been built around raising my family. The two do not mix well, so I’ve grown a little disconnected from the people in the community. The only time I meet new people is when I’m buying old bikes, motors, car parts, or tools - so I thought it might be a good idea to mix the two.

This is a ripple fender for a 16” rear wheel, and I’d love to trade it to someone out there. *** Camping gear, old gas motors, hunting knife, tools - anything vintage is going to be down my alley. ***

If you want this fender, tell me what you got.

I’ve got piles of stuff like springer fork legs and other custom things I’ve made. Don’t really feel like selling it, but maybe I do something somewhat regularly and trade them away. Let’s see how this goes.

Also, if you’re a shop or know of a shop building custom parts and wants to trade, I’m up for it 👍

The thing about building these parts is they start begging you to put them all together. Skirted fenders, springer fork ...
07/25/2024

The thing about building these parts is they start begging you to put them all together. Skirted fenders, springer fork legs, and I have maybe 30 of these Worksman frames to make a run of boardtrack racers. Not sure it makes a lot of business sense, but it’s the most fun idea I have right now so thats probably what I’ll do.

One of the processed that threatened to tank the shop was building these springer fork legs. I kept buying the old machi...
07/17/2024

One of the processed that threatened to tank the shop was building these springer fork legs. I kept buying the old machinery to build them, but being old I had to fix the machines, and that meant buying other machine like my CNC mill. Ran out of space and time real fast, but I’m one of those suckers who go for broke regardless of the payout. I just didn’t want to lose.

Such a relief once I was finally on the money, I kind of set the whole thing aside after a huge run of legs. Most of my motivation comes from the figuring out part. Sales and marketing is the motivation of someone with more money than me.

Then one day I woke up and remembered again I could walk out to my shop and build a 1940’s springer front fork from scratch. Cooler than cash. I’m back on the kick, built a set in stainless, might be cute and try a set out of aluminum for an old Harley peashooter. Pretty sure that would be the only aluminum 1915 HD fork in the world, for whatever that’s worth.

When the transmission blew up in my newer truck a few weeks back, it was going to cost a good chunk of money no matter w...
07/16/2024

When the transmission blew up in my newer truck a few weeks back, it was going to cost a good chunk of money no matter what, so I sold it to a man with very few teeth and bought something decades older to replace it.

The truck hadn’t run since 1997 when it was last owned by a high school kid who did high school stuff to it. Kind of fitting, because my first truck in high school was a 1965 Ford.

A new car won’t break down very often, but when it does it really hurts. Something old will break down all the time, but it’s usually something simple that can be fixed on the side of the road. Biggest difference is I don’t mind fixing old things, so worst case scenario I get to spend the day working on something I actually like.

Almost a daily driver now, but I’m sure I’ve got a few more break downs to go. Lucky me.

The little details are never the hard part. Staying on schedule is the hard part.Between the things I have to do, the th...
07/15/2024

The little details are never the hard part. Staying on schedule is the hard part.

Between the things I have to do, the things I want to do, and all the shiny stuff in between, real easy to get lost out here.

11/20/2023

I guess the best way to explain things is I’m the kind of dog that hides under the porch to die alone.

These tubes might not look like much, and if there were only two of them to build maybe the entire project wouldn’t have been much. In reality these tubes represent just about every complicated shape possible, and it was a puzzle that needed to be duplicated 100 times within specification.

Dream up a process, build machines to do it, engineer the tooling, and on your first attempt you break it all and find the things you didn’t understand before. Fix what you can, then get ready to break your ego a few more times.

A few years of juggling this while still filling orders and raising a family - and I swear the hardest part has been even thinking about emails or phone calls. Communication is another kind of slow death for me, and this project already had me bleeding out so I went under the porch for a bit and hunkered down.

Thrilled to have done it, thrilled to be able to continue doing it, thrilled to learn more, but also thrilled this batch is complete.

All of my focus from this point forward is filling outstanding orders. The waiting list on custom work goes back a little over 1 year, so like a true psycho I’m going to try cramming all of that into the next month just so I can start the new year fresh. Pray for me.

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Toledo, WA
98591

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