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I Forge Iron

Crane and Cattail sculpture


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This is a Brian Brazeal inspired crane and cattail sculpture. During the young smiths 2012 trip to the ABANA, we made and demonstrated a couple crane and cattail frames. Since then, the International Young Smiths 2013 team did a larger crane sculpture (Don't recall if it had cattails or not,) and Alec Steel from England (both a 2012 and 2013 young smith and now hosting the 2014 team out of his own shop,) has done a fantastic large crane sculpture as a commission piece. 

 

My steel yard recently got some plates in that are 1.5-inch thick, 16.25-inch in diameter, and weighing in at 88 pounds each. Sculpture base is the first thing that came to mind when I saw them. 

 

So I bought a couple and did a crane and cattail sculpture over the last two days. There were two of us working on most of it and it took a total of 24 man hours to complete. (Too long I know, but my striker is not a blacksmith, and the largest crane I've done prior to this was made from 3/8x1-inch flat bar, so I was a little slow at one on this scale.) 

 

Anyway, here are some specs. 

 

The entire sculpture stands 48-inches tall. 

I have not weighed it yet, but I'm guessing it comes in at about 120 or 130 pounds. Very bottom heavy, and stable, thanks to the base plate. 

The bird is made from 5/16x2.5-inch flat bar, and yes, I intentionally forged and left the hollows in it. The hole in the center was punched, drifted, then forged, and is about 2.5-inches in diameter. 

There are three cattails, one made from 5/8-inch round and the other two from 1 1/8-inch round. 

There are seven reeds, three made from 5/8-inch square and the others made from 1/2-inch square. 

All of the reeds, cattails, and the bird, come together in a forge-welded bundle. (Another Brazeal technique.) 

The bundle consists of all of the sculpture pieces, plus spacers, to make it square, and then a collar. I tack welded (forge welded tack, not mig,) the pieces together, building up the entire bundle, Then wrapped and forge welded the collar on. Pre-collar the bundle was 2-inches square, and after the collar it was a bit over 2.5-inches square.

 

Yes, the sculpture is mig-welded onto the base. Get over it! LOL Deal with it! :)

There was no way for me to do a real mortise and tenon joint here, although I might could have done a mortise and tenon, and then welded the tenon from the underside. (Suggested after the fact by another smith.) However, I'm not sure if my drill press throat will drill the center of that plate. (I'll check and may do that on the next piece.) 

 

And no I did not grind the weld down either. It's welded, and I don't mind people knowing it was welded. It is a metal working technique, and I do metal work. :)

 

The piece still requires some finish clean-up and some sort of finish coat. (Torn between oil and powder coat.) 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I worked at a shop that powder coated the finish products. For something like this, and most everything else, a sandblasted finish is ideal. The powder paint will hold a LOT tighter than on a smoother surface. With our wire items a smooth surface would allow the paint to crack if bent 90°, blasted had absolutely no cracking when bent even further. The powder paint was thick enough that even with a blasted surface it was smooth when it came out of the oven.

The only other thing to watch out for with powder paint are sharp corners where two or more surfaces come together. The tight angles create a zone that the paint cannot reach due to the Faraday effect, which is essentially an electric field that pushes the paint away. Newer units may have more power than the old ones to overcome this, but you still need to look out for it.

Nice job BTW.

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