Metal Sculpture & Carvings

Here's what I was tinkering on today and yesterday. Clockwise from top left: a pair of 1st to 3rd century Roman flint strikers, a 1700's English striker, a classic early 1800's C striker, two mid 1600's French strikers, and an early to mid 1800's teardrop style striker called an HBC Voyageur striker. The two folding knives are based on originals from a 1685 French shipwreck off the coast of Corpus Christi Texas. They were made as cheap folding knives to trade to the Indians. The handles are cold bent out of 14 gauge sheet. The originals had handles about half as thick - like coffee can material! I made up a handle that thin, but just couldn't bring myself to put a …

just finished installing this memorial piece this morning with my better half the artist built from 0.25 inch bronze plate. 7 feet diameter x 2 feet wide

Hi Iforgeiron and Smithies, Thought I'd add a post to the forum to rid the reminder message that I hadn't participated for several weeks I am going to try to attach a couple of pics of roses I just finished. My uncle of 80 odd years gave me his old 120 lb anvil and wouldn't accept anything for it, so I made him a rose for the kitchen table to remind him of where he sent it. He was never a blacksmith and had aquired it many years ago, He thought that I would get more use from it than he. Cheers, Chrispy

Hello All, I thought I'd show a few pictures of the things I've been up to in the past 2 years. This is only a small portion of the work I do from home since retiring from an office job and becoming an Artistic Blacksmith. I have literary hundreds of pictures of different things I've made and one day soon, I will stick them onto my web site (Under construction) and post you the link. I spent 4 - 5 days a week at the forge but still squeeze in about 10 weeks a year on holidays. I enjoy what I do so much, I have decided I'll live forever... Cheers, Chrispy.

I should be working on a commission for a client in Washington, but I can't get motivated to do it. Creatures are more fun, and they actually pay better! :)

Hi! This weekend I tried myself with some bottle openers. There were two birthdays at hand and I needed some little presents. I will keep the smallest one and give away the two others as presents. To be honest, I hope they like them because they look kind of....feral. Forged out of square stock, I used an old leather belt that I cut into some strips for a nicer feel and grip. I thought of making leather scabbards for them, but time ran short.

My grade 6 class wanted to do something different for an arts presentation at our school. We decided to make a sculpture - my classroom is the school shop so I have lots of materials around. We decided to take the "Character Traits" our school has beed focusing on and put them all together into a single image - a sunflower. The kids cut the petals out of thin copper and embossed the traits into the petals - we even wrote some of them into different languages. I had to do the heavy stuff because the kids didn't have the strength, but I did get them to drill and rivet their large petals on, and to stamp their names into one of the big leaves. The school loved our scu…

This a sculpture made with 7/16" and 1/4" rebar, and scrap pices of plate and 1/2 " square stock to make base and men figures. Nelson.

never realy did anything in the way of pure art, figured id try my hand. any criticism would be great

My slightly modified version of a Fredrick's split cross. 1" square stock. Roughly 14" total height. All visible color contrasts are process(es) generated and sealed with inside/outside clear enamel. Cross looks close to being made of wood until you lift it up. Base has a sandstone type rough gritty feel/finish with different shades of coloring. Thankyou Leah Fuller who assisted me in opening this cross (a few years ago) at Joe Rolfe's place. It was a hot and humid evening, but those memories of dear friends working together will remain priceless to me. It took me a while to finish this project, but I finally did!

Garden sculpture made for an art gallery in Helmsley, north yorkshire. The finish will be galvanized with an acid etch prime and polished up. The scrolls around the base are all forge welded but all of the stems have been mig welded to the dished base.

I made this as a mothers day present for my yard art loving mom. The wind vane is made from 3/4 inch round. The stand is 5/8 round with vine texture on most of it, the circle is made by pinching bits on the near left corner of the flat dies of the power hammer, then wrapping around a piece of pipe fixed to the platen table. The bird is 3/16 inch plate, made from the instructions in Mark Asperys new book. He made this kind of bird a few years ago at a hammer-in, I really liked it, but didn't take notes. It was great seeing a step-by-step in this book. Sorry for the shameless plug on Mark's new book, but it's a pretty good book... Take care, Mike

I thought since it was mother's day I would try my hand at making an iron rose. I ended up making several giving both my wife & mom one for Mother's day.

These are the window guards that were commissioned by our local church, they are based on the same design as the railings that were made for the exterior. The commission originally came to a blacksmith friend of mine, Matthew Brown, and he asked me if i could help him out.

HI I am trying to make a honey suckle I got the cut out and form but heres the problem I can't get to narrow it in shape it to look right any suggestions

Hello all- I have not visited in awhile. Been busy with a Casting class at our local University. Hot fun! I will post pictures soon.... I am so excited to say that I've gotten my first 'real' commission for Blacksmithing work! The customer wants life size Rhododendron leaves (among some other things....) in the piece, and I was just wondering if anyone out there in Blacksmithing Cyberspace has any how-to tips for me on forging Rhododendron leaves. I figure I'll start with clay..... Thanks so much! Peace, Susan

This sprouted in my yard yesterday. Must have something to do with all the scrap steel laying about the place coupled with all the rain last week! Seriously though, my wife wanted "a large metal flower" for the yard. Not bad for using a flux-core mig and some found junk, eh? Petals are cold bent election sign stand steel (non-galvanized), center is hydraulic line flange from junk pile, and stem is found 1/2 round rod. I still need to make a couple leaves for the stem, but that will wait a few days.

I did most of the install on this piece on Wednesday. However because of the multitude of lines, pipes and wires running right where a post should have gone the latch didn't fit and I had to rebuild the latch last night. Put the latch on this evening and took these pictures. Then took most of the family for a nice steak! Right where the main post for the large section on the left is (which is the post the gate swings from) is: a gas line, an electric line, a telephone cable, a TV cable and 3 sprinkler lines. On the right section the post against the house is set in 3 feet, but the other post is only down about 10 inches and has a large plate welded to it. Because …

I'm still amazed at all the different styles/shapes of original flint strikers that I have found over the years in books/museums. Such variety in such a simple tool of everyday life from very early Roman times B.C. on up to the present. And a lot of ... art ... involved in them. And then there is all that "mechanical" stuff of figuring out how to replicate them on the anvil. Perhaps these will offer some inspiration for you blacksmiths out there - and a bit of a history lesson as well. These are some of the flint strikers I made up yesterday. And the historical time periods vary quite a bit. Left side from bottom: - Found at the Fox Hill Seneca Indian village …

Hey guys, I'm wanting to build an anvil stand using traidtional joinery this spring/summer, and I was wondering if 3/4" is good enough for the legs and support. It'd just be twisted in different forms/patterns. But also, does anyone have any pictures or anything of a simple one, or maybe a little bit fancy???

Thought i'd share some pictures of a sculpture i made for my metal fabrication (which was also an experiment for my Science of Sound class). Its a 7 foot long tunnel made of chicken wire and wrapped in raw clay (which provides excellent insulation and resonance), perched atop steel stands. At one end there is a large bass amplifier hooked up to a synthesizer (which allowed me to control waveform, frequency, and amplitude), and there is also a fog machine which will inject smoke directly into the tunnel in front of the amp. The viewer stands at the opposing end, creating a unique space for them to enter. As the sound is blasted through the smoke, the changes in air pres…

It's my 6th wedding anniversary and to my surprise, #6 is iron! I made this jewelry tree for my wife. It is made from 1/2" round, spilt to form the top branches and roots and then the middle branches are mig welded. I intentionaly left the welds a little messy because it added a more realistic texture. It is mounted on a rustic piece of "barn wood".

This sculpture was made for a client who works in the rail road company

I was watching a roadrunner commercial, and they had a drawing of a flower with a stylized leaf, it occurred to me that it could be done in metal, so being as how I had some time... well the flower is not that terrific, but I had to work out the idea in iron, and now I can move to improve, here is rev 1. and yes... the wife loved it, funky yard art ya-know

I just got a good marble chess board from a garage sale for cheap and figured some good forged iron pieces were needed to match it for class. Anyone tried this? Any photos for inspiration?