Pot Rack

[ripleycopa]

I had a scrap piece of 1.5 by 1/4 inch stock that I thought might make a small pot rack so I split both ends and drew them out and curved them over the horn of the anvil.  I hand hammered and broke the edges on the rack for texture.  I then drilled each end and drilled screw holes on each end with another hole in the center for a decorative disk in the middle of the pot rack.  The disk was riveted with a copper rivet and the entire rack bent with a bending fork. The whole thing was finished with a clear acrylic spray. The hooks were drawn out of 1/4 inch round stock and hung on the rack.

[yves]

Hi,

 

I like pot racks and I like yours. Well made.

 

Questions :

1.  

    the entire rack bent with a bending fork. 

   If your rack is bent, how do you screw it to the wall?

2. How long is the rack?

3. How did you make the disk?

4. Why did you leave the hooks "free"? Is it an esthetic choice? There were, historicaly, tracks for utensils that were simply pieces of iron on which the utensils' ends were hung. I am presently reproducing an 18th century utensil rack and the hooks were riveted.
   
   
   
   I have also seen forgewelded hooks to this type of rack. Larger racks seem to have "free" hooks so  that you could vary the distance between pots of various sizes. On a shorter rack the hooks could be fixed. I am not suggesting that they should be merely that they could be from a practical point of view.

Thank you for posting.  Kitchen implements are very interesting and have a very rich history.

[bosox]

Sweet! That is really nice. Well, you're too good in forging.

[ripleycopa]

In response to Yves' questions:  The flat stock I started with was a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" by 14 inches long.  The length was not designed into the project, it was just a piece of leftover scrap I had from an earlier project.  All of the forging, texturing and drilling were done with the bar flat.  I then use the bending fork in the hardy and a bending wrench to bend out the center in a smooth radius leaving both ends and the screw holes flat.  When screwed into the wall the screws pull the ends down flat against the wall and leave the radius in the middle about 3 inches from the wall.  The hooks could have easily been fixed but since pots are often of different sizes, being able to slide the hooks along the rack a couple of inches in either direction might be useful.  In bigger racks I often put a fixed hook in the center that has decorative scrolls running above the rack.  In this case the rack was so short I did not think I had room for two movable hooks and a fixed center hook so I just did a decorative element in the center with the hooks on either side.  The center disk was a 2.5 in disk of 18 ga. steel that I have a bucket full of from an Iron in the Hat Acquisition.  The 1/4" hole was already predrilled.  I just did a bit of countersinking on the back for the rivet.  The disk itself was texured with my cross peen and power wire brushed with just enough brass hot brushing to give the texture some highlights.  It was then riveted to the rack with a copper rivet.

[2Tim215]

Like that

[yves]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

leaving both ends and the screw holes flat.  When screwed into the wall the screws pull the ends down flat against the wall and leave the radius in the middle about 3 inches from the wall

I misread the pic. I did not see that the ends were flat.

 

brass hot brushing to give the texture some highlights

I was wondering. Thanks for telling. It seemed odd that on a piece like this one which you consider minor you would have used bronze or some other exotic and expensive metal.

 

In bigger racks I often put a fixed hook in the center

I and others like me I am sure, would very much like to see your pot racks. Or have you shown them already on IFI? And the idea comes to mind to start a "Show me your pot rack" thread here. It could begin with a selection of yours.

 

Thanks again,

 

Yves

[ripleycopa]

Here are three pictures of a longer potrack I did several years ago.  This was my standard design until I did the short one in this thread. Sometimes I do the end scrolls asymetrically (but with each end symetrical to the other).  I always like to use pyramid head screws to affix the racks to the wall.  Also, I now do much more texturing of the rack than is shown in these photos; usually by cold hammering the entire piece of stock with my rounding hammer overlapping blows until the entire front face has been textured.  I also use the same rounding hammer to break the edges of the rack.  It is a lot of work, but it really makes a difference in the finished project.