we're off to europe in two weeks, and are going to be visiting great friends in northern germany.  olaf and sabine used to live near to us in santa cruz, and we happened to see them this past fall here.  olaf and i forged together for a couple hours, and he then wrote to me once back in germany that he'd really like me to forge him some shelf brackets for shelves made of old train bridge timbers he got from a site near their house.

simple things:  10 cm on the wall, 20 cm shelf width straight out, and a 1.25 cm lip in front; two 8mm bolt holes to mount into the wall.

i had picked up two wrought iron wagon wheels last year, and have been slowly giving them away, trying things with them, and using them for projects.  well, given olaf wanted something that would remind him of the old days in felton (our little town), i cut 33 cm strips 2.5 cm wide from some flattened wheel pieces, which are roughly 10 mm thick.  he needs 7 of the brackets, so saturday afternoon was spent punching holes for the bolts, and drifting them to size.  they're not perfect, and meet his criteria of "rough"

between now and saturday i'll fire up the forge and put the two bends in the brackets, make sure they're all basically the same, and etch them with muriatic acid.  then a coat of spray lacquer, and a huge dollop of blo/wax/turps on each one, hoping they won't rust before we get them there!

some in-progress pics follow.  i'll add more as they get done.  note that the finished pieces rest on my new 196 lb. peter wright anvil i got from my teacher, kirk mcneill.  it's the one i loved in class last fall.  frosty, sad to say, i had to sell my soderfors to get this one...

I'm sure your shelf brackets will work out fine.

What's that pink fluoro paint doing on that lovely PW????

Looking forward to seeing how these turn out with the etch.(I have some of Bill's tire wrought, haven't found the right project yet)   Jig to get the bends all the same or will you be bending in the vise?

 

ausfire, it's pink *and* green.  painted by kirk prior to the cba spring conference; the entire hot cut is pink, too.   it was to keep them from "walking off" on their own, or with assistance.  not a joke, really, as someone took a whole forge that wasn't theirs, and from the gallery a damascus saxe knife kirk'd made with tool steel and meteoritic iron.

michael, i'm going to bend them on the anvil.  upset where the bend is going to be, then bend over a nice radius'd edge, and square up the outside of the bend to get the platform for the shelf as nice as possible.  on the tip bend i'll use a very small radius edge (if not square) and leave it rounded (no upset, no squaring)...i don't want anyone hurting themselves bumping into them (at least not more than necessary, eh?).

ausfire, it's pink *and* green.  painted by kirk prior to the cba spring conference; the entire hot cut is pink, too.   it was to keep them from "walking off" on their own, or with assistance.  not a joke, really, as someone took a whole forge that wasn't theirs, and from the gallery a damascus saxe knife kirk'd made with tool steel and meteoritic iron.

 

I see. It makes you mad when people can't keep their hands off other people's stuff. I had an exhibition of junk art once and someone walked off with a 5 foot snake forged from 25mm rebar. I had spent many hours pounding that thing out by hand. You feel really hollow and ripped off when things like that happen.

I don't hate but thieves come close to meeting the conditions. I'm not talking about someone who needs to eat or feed the kids if they have no alternative, nor emergencies. If a person's life and well being depends on it I'll grant it as a gift, no payback asked. Pass it on down the line I'm good. Junkies? Help yourself, just not to my things, get help.

To steal because you're greedy or lazy? Like I say darned close to crossing the line with me. I certainly don't have any mercy for thieves, just refuse to hate.

Frosty The Lucky.

yeah, thieves suck.  kirk's knife is a case in point.  beautiful thing, needed handling, but he brought it to the gallery to share how it was made for people to figure out.  someone just up and took it on the last day, when everyone was loading up...nothing one needed to live, just something shiny they didn't have, i guess.

i was glad the paint was on there.  in a group setting like that, small things like hot cut hardies can easily slip in a bag, or a pocket, even by mistake...though you'd have to try xxxx hard to make a mistake like that.  put paint on it, and it's pretty obvious for those who might make such a mistake that it belonged to someone else.

so the brackets are done, or nearly so.  two bends, the holes sized, soaked in muriatic acid for 1 hour.  I am taking them raw; if my friend wants wax only, or lacquer then wax, we can do that in Germany.

the short bend was the hardest to do, trying for a consistent 20 cm length from where it will mount.

hopefully they hey will work for him!

He'll like them, they're nice clean and simple. They have a solid strong weight to them, it's a good look. They're a natural for plank shelving, very attractive.

Frosty The Lucky.

Edited July 9, 201511 yr by Frosty

thanks, frosty.  exactly as he wanted...