David Kailey

Looks clean, straight. It's not a simple thing to get all that layed out and assembled in that manner. Nice work.

On 11/4/2022 at 1:12 PM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

David, thank you for relating some of the history of your piece. Knowing that I really love it now. Just be aware that there are many IFI members who will consider you and your family as part of our extended remote family. This evening I will be in the Celtic garden and ring the anvil there, to honor Morgan-Jade and ask with a tear in my eye for healing light and comfort be sent to you and your family.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. 

Thank you both. I'll have to check out Louise Nevelson or David Smith's. I have not heard of them. It also gave me an opportunity to forge some elements and skills I don't usually get to do in my commissioned work. 

I appreciate all your comments. Here are the 5 W's about this piece.

I started smithing in January 2012. I took a 2 day class in Spokane, Wa with Steve McGrew. I never took another class. I'd forge, weld and plasma cut stuff with my 2 daughters Mady was 9 and Morgan-Jade was 6.

Later that year the day after our anniversary, on Sept 1st, Morgan-Jade died, unexpectedly and not for sure why. After weeks of trying to get a foot hold and move forward. Gina(my wife) told me I had to go to the shop. She didn't care if I came right back home. But she wanted to see that the alarm had been reset. After the 4th day of doing that, I needed a tool to fix something at the house. On my work bench was a big wild flower that the girls and I had started. Literally with a chatter chin, sobbing like a baby I finished that piece. After that I went and made....stuff. Anything, a hook, piece of wall art, door handles...whatever. A good friend of mine, Jess was laid off. He is a fantastic junk yard artist. He looks at crap and sees a fish, bigfoot, owl, cockroach.....etc. I don’t. I see things in my head, take stock steel and form the shape I want. So we messed around in the shop, creating, laughing, and crying. I would listen to music...Adel, Guns and Roses, Simon and Garfunkel, Brooks and Dunn, Elton John, Pear Jam. One day a guy walked in the smithy to see a 6'3" 275lb man swinging a hammer, banging hot steel, balling his eyes out listening to Adel. Lol. He'll never get that image out of his head. I realized I didn't care he was there, I needed to cry. So I did. Our currency changed, we deal in real, raw, emotion and are not embarrassed. Happy or sad and we help one another.

Not to long after that I started Morgan-Jade Ironworks and Forge. I still think about Morgan-Jade how spunky she was, loved to dance, full of attitude, bold, fearless, thought the world of her big sister. Fierce w/ a tender heart, didn't hide her emotions. Her face always said everything she was thinking. The best description is, people loved Mady because she is kind, generous, and caring. They loved Morgan-Jade because she told them to. Lol. She was a big personality, with a lot of energy, in little blue eyed blond haired bottle. These thoughts bring feeling and emotions. Like the pain from all the trauma we have been thru, love I have for my Family, big holes in my heart from loved ones who are asleep in death. Hurt, watching my wife and daughter live w/o Morgan-Jade. Sadness of saving 3 seats instead of 4 at meetings in the Kingdom Hall. The pride, knowing Gina and I raised one hell of a daughter. Mady knows her way around the smithy, works hard, doesn't shy away from heavy labor, works circles around men her age and many her senior, a problem solver not a creator, figures out a way to make it happen. She is a certified MA, has a job, bought her own car and contributes to the world. Gina is the anvil in my life. We are 26 years strong. We are kept warm due to the love and support the Brothers and Sisters have shown through our entire lives. There's also the frustration of having to take meds because my bipolar downs damage my life and relationships. The meds help me not have the lows....but they also kill the high guy who's everything good I love being. So I settle for the in-between guy never crazy happy, productive, inspiring. But also never crazy depressed self-destructive, with my head in a dark hole while everything I love burns down around me. I struggle to live in the middle somewhere so I can be a good husband, father, faithful servant, son, and neighbor. 

The back of my shirts say, "Fire, Hammer, Anvil, Heart of a craftsman. I put it there so that every time I pull it up my arms, just before I raise my arms to duck my head in, I am reminded of how blessed my life, is, how beautiful my family is, how Jehovah god will resurrect back Morgan-Jade in the paradise and we will never be without one another again. How wonderful the family we have chosen is.

So....yep.... That where this piece comes from. It's a celebration of our biggest wins and worst losses. It's bold, raw(the lighting is why it looks blue), beaten, twisted, skillful, clever, hurt, loving, confused, little bitter, whimsical, hard, faithful, crushed, blessed, borrowed, gnarly, resilient, complex, brutish, fantastic.....its my life. I love this piece. I loved all the emotions/memories good and bad that ran thru my mind as I shaped every piece. I have worked on this here and there for 5 years. 

This piece is for me, this is my piece, for my family. My childhood friend just lost her son to cancer and another friends daughter is being treated. My heart hurts for them.....so I went to my shop disarmed the alarm and finish a piece that has been on my work bench. It's just a distraction that gives me time to process a lot of emotions.

Morgan-Jade would go nuts about it, look at every bit of it ask some questions. Then probably give me a thumbs up and say, "it's awesome dad".

Brain vomit is my way of not having to explain all this anytime I post pics of my emotionally inspired works.

This piece has been stuck in my head.

Traditional joinery, all hand forged....except 2 copper rivets.

A few new features I designed. Pickets are forged from 22" long 3/4" square bar drawn out with round dies to 36".  The decrative panels....fell out of my head. 

On 8/29/2021 at 10:35 PM, Frosty said:

That's really an impressive job of work. One of these days when I'm down that way I'd like a chance to shake your hand. 

Always welcome to come by the smithy.

On 8/27/2021 at 8:44 AM, pnut said:

Lovely work. Are all the scrolls hand forged? 

Yes. Lol. And I still have another few hundred to forge for the panels that will run down the sides between the posts.

For a customer.

I had help 2 day. Pretty much been packing the trusses solo. Lol. The last 2 weren't to bad. But it was quite a solo production moving the bigger ones around. No hoist equipment. 

This is a set of trusses for a pergola. All of the fillagree in the field using 3/8" round rod. 7 diffrent scrolls where used. There was a ton of fit and finish work. The truss sit on a 4"x4"x1/4" beam supported by 4-6"x6"x1/4" @ 7ft tall. The pergola is 12' wide 15' tall. There are sides and 2 gates. Which will be the next phase. 

On 5/29/2019 at 7:30 PM, 58er said:

looks great, what type of finish for weather protection?

Powder coating on the rail, and clear coating on the copper.

On 5/4/2019 at 5:13 PM, Frosty said:

How long does your apprentice stay wet enough to work? Making a set is probably better than a special buck and hand peining the heads.

I have to water him down every 30 min in the summer. winter just once but he freezes up pretty quick.

pickets are tube. less weight and cost. the baskets are $1.68 each so I just buy them to meet budget. I do forge them but i charge $ 12 each cause I can only forge 8 an hour. 

On 5/4/2019 at 12:23 PM, Frosty said:

That's quite the railing David, I see happy customers in your future. What did you use to buck the bronze medallions when you peined the tenons?

Used a rivet set I made years back then drilled a hole the same size of the set thru a 2 x 4 x 4 steel chunk I had and then poked the set thru and welded it. Then I put my 140lb soaking wet apprentice behind that. Lol

Here are some photos of the railing before it shipped.

On 4/28/2019 at 2:18 PM, Frosty said:

I use hose clamps and connect more than one if it's a large bundle. Works well on sq. not so much on rnd. so I clamp at more than a couple points.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yah Frosty..... that round rod is a different animal. 

If no Smith ever copied another's design there would be no smiths. Some items there is just no way to no copy RR spike knife. RR bottle opener. Coat hooks, corbels, drawer pulls, nail, rose, ....... ect. I make whatever the customer asked for. If they show me a design they like I will make it. Any Smith that says he has never copied another Smith's design is delusional or a liar.

20 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

Looks good.

 

One of my customers made a few different items from tubing. He would take the entire bundle from the steel supplier and load it into his bandsaw still banded up, so he was making 100 cuts every time per set up.

Yep that's what I do. But I usually weld the ends together.

2" truck axel and tolls used to forge the positive 

positive welded to flat bar and left cold.

a 2" block of mild steel was headed up and the positive was hammered into the block forming g the negative.

copper disc placed on the lower hammer die and the open die is placed over the top of it. This is done because the disc can hop around which when the hammer comes down can mess it up by double stamping or even just flat smashing the copper cause its half in and half out of the die.

copper discs forged in the open die and then cleaned up with a wire wheel.

On 4/22/2019 at 6:32 AM, Cavpilot2k said:

Wow. That seems like a nightmare to keep track of all those scroll parts and organize the whole thing. 

Well done, sir!

About 1650 parts.

Took me about 50 hrs just to break the material down using my bandsaw and chop saw.

4 types of pickets: straight, single and double baskets, double twist

14 diffrent pattern scrolls forged using my scroll forms totaling over 650.

18 hand forged formed scrolls.

And about 700 hours.

On 4/20/2019 at 10:46 AM, Kevin Olson said:

Ah yup. Thats cool!!! What finish will they have for not rusting? Thanks for showing your project!

Satin hammered black powder coating. And every where you see what looks like a washer an open die forged copper flower will be riveted.

9 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Awesome work David. Can't wait to see them installed. I have some faux shutters to artistically design and make. Any advise on free design? None Have to match but I plan on each set having a theme and I'd like them all to tie into eachother since they are all on the same side of the house. 

Flow. When I start sketching it out, it very light and as I get the designs flow dialed in I slowly darken it up. I do this because some times I need to extend the curve, make a scroll smaller or larger. I some times draw it over a few times. Also I use samples of scrolls that I already have forms built for. No point in reinventing the wheel...... or scroll. Also I lightly coat my fab table with satin black paint to darken it up which helps make it easier to see the soap stone I draw with.

nice job!

Built 2 matching balcony railings that will got on a building in Downtown Kellogg, Id. Hand drawn design, which i then text a pic to the customer for approval...... i do this because that is as advanced as I get. I don't do CAD..... I do hot steel. My apprentice and I then hand forged all the scrollwork and organic elements and laid them out. Once we got the 2 matching main panels done then we started on the 4 matching side panels. I am really happy about this project and how it turned out. It took about 90 hours to produce. I will post pictures of it installed.

I have an instagram account that I post 90% of my work on if you want to keep up with what is going on in my forge.

On 4/17/2019 at 1:37 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Is that tall or off the ground?

off the ground. the broad grass is the last thing I weld in and i hate welding on my knees so the gate is on my saw horses but added another tree so that is why I was up high.

On 4/16/2019 at 8:12 AM, Latticino said:

Sweet design and execution. Did you hot rivet all those 250 connections?

Hopefully this isn't for a commercial kitchen where you would have to clutter it up with various grease filters and fire suppression systems.  Are you going to give them a duct collar at the top to make the exhaust system connection?

I did not hot rivet. It would have added a lot of labor and they are for the most part decrative so I just weld the back side. The collar was added to the back side.

There were lights added and the pot/utensil rack was separate.

18 hours ago, Frosty said:

Are there provisions for lighting and or pot utensil hangers in it?

Frosty The Lucky.