October 29, 201312 yr Borrowing Brian Brazeal's forged crane idea (thanks Brian!), I made this for some friends of mine. They have done me plenty of favors in the past, and they also like cranes. They have some wood carvings of cranes in their house, but nothing like this. The frame is old wrought iron from a salvaged wagon wheel. I ripped it to a 1" width on the bandsaw and really like how the outer radiused edge of the wheel makes outside of the frame. I welded the frame on the backside, and then torched in a bit of bronze brazing rod in the corner seams on the front side to add a bit of color. I hope they like it!
October 29, 201312 yr Greetings Vice Whisperer/Black Frog/Friend. Super cool.. I like the brown cat tails.. Of course the crane is polished to a machine .00001. tolerance. I am surprised that it does not have torch color. I am sure your friends will love it .. I do... Is this what you do in your off anvil hunt time ? Keep up the great work.. Forge on and make MORE beautiful things Jim
October 29, 201312 yr Author Thanks Jim! I am surprised that it does not have torch color. I actually tried that, and really liked the blues/ambers I got from flame coloring the polished steel. But the more I thought about it, I liked the brighter wire brushed steel look in contrast with the darker frame and cattails. There's a lot of empty space in the frame, sort of on purpose, and I thought the brighter steel makes the crane pop out from the frame a bit more. I guess this might depend on the color of the wall it is hanging on too.... This is after a Ren Wax application, nice stuff! Thanks for the the tip. :)
October 30, 201312 yr He has a beautifully curved neck, almost heron-like. A version blued with a torch could become a Great Blue Heron for a waterfowler....excellent detail.
October 30, 201312 yr I see so muck exceptional work here that I run out of original adjectives. I really like your piece and your rendition of Brian's cranes is very well done. Dave
October 31, 201312 yr Author Thanks for all the kind words! I'm happy with how it turned out. I'll be giving it to him at Thanksgiving time, so for the next few weeks I'll get to have it hanging on my wall for a while. :)
November 12, 201312 yr Beautiful artwork! Your crane is delicate and graceful and looks stunning against the beautiful frame and the cat tails. Excellent work!
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