A butterfly from an old hinge

[ausfire]

There’s a little girl who comes to my demos (her Mum works with us) and she keeps asking me if I can make a butterfly. The boys are more interested in knives and spears and snakes, but she wants a butterfly. There is probably a granddaughter or niece or neighbour in your life who would like one of these.
I like to do junk art so I thought perhaps an old hinge might be a good starting point. I realise there are probably many ways of achieving this, but I have outlined my procedure below:

Step 1: Select an old rusty door hinge and mark out the shape of a butterfly. The holes in the hinge will add interest and help with maintaining the symmetry.


Step 2: By whatever means you like, cut out the rough shape. You could forge it and chisel it out or use an angle grinder as I did.


Step 3: File it to shape and remove all burrs. No point in working with sharp edges when they are easy to remove.


Step 4: Decide what part of the hinge centre you are going to use and cut off the excess. Keep the pin for the body.


Step 5: Adjourn to the forge. Use heat on each wing in turn and hammer out to the shape desired. A small ball pein hammer leaves a nice dimpled. I tried to leave the holes untouched to keep the idea of the hinge intact. I also left the makers name (Davies, Australia) visible on the hinge leaf. I balanced it with my own touchmark on the opposite wing.
Step 6: When all four wings are thinned out to the size you want (you can go paper thin if you like) take all the different punches and markers you have, to create a pattern on each wing. Try to keep the symmetry. If the recipient of the butterfly is handy, they might like to suggest what shapes or patterns they would like.


Step 7: I kept the hinge pin, upset the top end a bit and forged a little head on it. Taper the tail end (not too sharp) and a few little bars add interest. Or maybe a twist in the tail end. And I know from experience that kids like things with eyes, so I punched a couple of eyes in the front. On another one I discarded the hinge pin and used an old engine pushrod instead. It already had a nice swelling for the head.
Step 8: Optional. I gave it a bit of a blast in the sandblaster to remove any unwanted scale and then back into the forge to heat it enough to burnish the wings. I like the contrast between the brass finish and the darker metal. Blue tempering colours look good too. If you want to get really flash you could solder on a pair of curly copper feelers.


Step 9: Preserve with a bit of oil, lacquer, wax, whatever your preferred finish is.
Of course you can make these by cutting shapes from plate. A small piece off a plier handle makes a good body, as they have a knurled texture. Lots of options … and one happy little girl.

[Jacques]

Now this is really nice.

[Glenn]

I can see it as a stand alone piece or being used as a light duty hinge for a project. Great idea 

[beth]

aus - the butterflys look excellent -  i absolutely Love that idea :) bet you made that little girls day!  such a simple idea, but a brilliant one . nice work ! :)

[Chuck Fraser]

very nice

[teenylittlemetalguy]

Very cool!

[therepairman1557]

Great idea!

[781]

Nice, I would not of came up with that.

[Dan C]

Love it!

[Frosty]

Great idea I'm putting it in my book. It'd make all kinds of excellent projects from stand alones to working hinges to . . .

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Neil Blythin]

Nicely done ausfire! I'm most certainly going to have to borrow this idea - my kids would love these!

[ausfire]

Thank you all for the positive comments. A very simple project, but something nice for the kids. Neil, if you make some please post pics - it would be good to see others' interpretations. Lots of scope for variety and innovation.

[Old South Creations]

very nice! cool idea!

[Camero68]

Cool butterflies, great idea on using the hinges. Like that you added some textures and veins to them. I bet the little girl was happy to see them. Great job!

[divermike]

Cool, now old boxes with hinges at auctions will come under consideration for purchase, thanks for sharing.

[Jimmy Wallbanger]

wow its one of those "its so obvious why didnt I think of it" ideas! haha freakin love the idea

[T.J.watts]

Your work is pretty nice. There's no telling how many broke tools and stuff I haven't been able to make myself get rid of.I always think ill use it for something.thumbs up on the ingenuity.