The Gate finds It's Home

The gate is now installed and it's owners are enjoying it.

The little shop elf magically appeared again and gave the final “kick test” approval.

Iron Vines Grow in the Summer Heat

Well here we go again. It’s time to finish the garden gate. Remember the gate?

After I finish forging all the pieces I put them in vinegar for 2 days to get rid of the mill scale.

Then I weld the basic design together.

Afterwards I melt solder into places I can’t weld to prevent water from getting in the joints and rusting them out.



















In my world, iron vines grow in the summer heat.

But they need a little guidance from friendly scroll benders.

Otherwise they don’t know where to go.

Ahhh, now that’s better.

After the vines have been welded to the gate a little shop elf magically attaches the leaves and flowers to their correct places.

In the heat of a dark summer night the gate waits for a cooler day to be sandblasted and painted

A cool day did help but the sand blasting was very dirty work.

Forged Plant Stand Part 4

Well it’s finally finished, and like a parent I don’t want my child to go out into the world and leave me. But I know it’s going to be loved in its new home as a gift for a special person. Thank you Mr. D. for believing in me and allowing me to express myself. Enjoy!

Ah, if I could put into words that music which I hear; that music which can bring tears to the eyes of marble statues! – to which the very muscles of men are obedient!

Henry David Thoreau

Forged Plant Stand Part 3

The leaves and vines are welded together and have entwined themselves around the legs.

After forging the base and stem I weld them on to the back of the flower. Then I will forge the stamen and weld it inside the flower.

Scale forms on the outside of all objects that are forged so I strip it off with a two hour bath in muriatic acid.

I apply several coats of patina to the raw metal to get the flower the color I want.

Now that’s what I call a flower! Tomorrow I will weld them to the vines and patina the vines, leaves, and flower stems together. Later in the week I will patina the stand one more time and then finish it with several coats of clear polyurethane. It's almost done!

Forged Plant Stand Part 2

After I finished forging the other two legs I forged the cross braces.

This is the first test fit-up for the major elements.

To create the illusion of thickness I emboss some flat bar and curve it to fit under the top.

I forged the ends of the cross braces and weld everything together then moved the stand outside into the bright sunshine. I really like the combination of the rough surface texture and changing contours.

Today I finished forging the vines so I made a symbolic offering of thanks to Vulcan and ask him to guide me on my final quest. Tomorrow the flowers and leaves will begin to become part of the vines that will encircle the legs of the stand.

Forged Plant Stand

This is the concept drawing that I used to get this commission. It’s missing the placement of the flowers that were added at the meeting with the client.

The legs will be forged from 1” by 1” by 12” long solid stock.

I had to turn the forge up to twice its normal operation pressure just to get this amount of steel soft enough to forge.

Most of the forging was done on the fly press with tooling I made for this job.

There’s a lot of straightening to keep the part under control.

Top half of the first leg is done. This end starts off as 1½” by ½” and tapers to ¾” by ½” in the middle.

Here I’m heating the other end of the leg. This end starts off as 1” by 1” and  tapers to ¾” by ½”  in the middle.

One leg done with two more to go. Wow! That was a lot of work!

I finished the day by forging half of the leaves that will be used on the vine that will circle the stand.

Leaves for Gate Flowering Vine

Ok. This is going to be a long entry. Grab your favorite drink, relax, and go with the flow.

This style of leaf uses a lot of material so I’m starting with one inch by a quarter inch flat bar.

With the hardy chisel clamped in the leg vice, I hot cut the bar stock at 45 degrees.

Then I forge it to a point with a bend in the end using the remainder of the leaf left in the bar.

After a reheat in the forge I use a fuller tool to create the transition at the base of the leaf where the stem starts.

I continue fullering down the bar to reduce the size of the material. This is the stuff that gets me excited.

After another reheat, I’ll be using that phrase a lot, I move the material out to the end of the horn and fuller some more to reduce the cross-section of the stem further.

 

After another reheat I hot cut the leaf and stem off the bar stock and return the leaf back into the forge. At this point I use the heat left in the leftover bar stock to start the process all over again for another leaf.

This process will take several trips back to the forge for more heat. First you forge the stem square, then octagonal, then round. Each time you progress through those steps the stem gets smaller and smaller in diameter.

It takes one more time at the tip of the anvil horn to smooth out the transition next to the leaf. Then back to the face to round out the entire stem to its final diameter.

Here is where the fun begins. I use the step of the anvil to fuller out the width of the leaf

It takes two reheat and fuller cycles to get the leaf to the correct width.

In this picture I’m doing two things at once. I am fullering the material down to the base of the leaf on the right side and I’m creating the leaf veining. If you’re still with me, hang in there, we’re almost done.

After a reheat, I fuller and vein the left side of the leaf. Both left and right sides will require two cycles of fullering and veining to get the final texture. As the part gets thinner and thinner, my time to forge gets shorter and shorter. If I hit the part too much while it is cold, it will work harden and crack.

After a reheat, I use the step to crease the leaf and give it some life.

You’re probably getting tired of me saying this but, after another reheat to shape the stem, I use blacksmith magic to make the leaf come alive.

There is another leaf hiding in that piece of bar stock. Can you see it?

 I take the new leaf (upper left) over to the gate parts and she finds a home with her other friends.

They (flowers and leaves) look like colored jewels to me. I will probably move the flowers and leaves around five or six more times before I’m happy with their location.

It’s a lot of work but I find it very rewarding