Well I was originally going to try letters made out of wrenches but customer gave me mostly free reign. Wrenches were fighting me as I need to make tongs to handle them.  I mentioned rebar and showed an example. She loved it. The finished project was her idea I wasn't happy with several parts and positions but hey, she's paying the bill. And liked it. This is a gift for her dad in a wedding coming up. Any advise on letters? I know a few things I'd have done different. But opinions and better experience is always welcome. 

First photo is final product which she was happy with and wanted. Second photo was her layout. 

A little perspective on Graphic Design.

In the days when Printers used "moveable type", ( individual letters ) they were taught to space the individual characters, so that the "white space" between each letter was fairly even.

This makes for a more discernible presentation.

In the case of "VAIL" a bit more space between the "V" and the "A", ... and also between the "I" and the "L" would be more pleasing to the eye.

 

For what it's worth ..........

.

For what it's worth....I like them, they look good. I would take a flatter to the "A" cross bar joints so they match the smoother finish of the other letters and maybe sharpen the  "L" corner a little (upset?). Depends how much time you want to invest in them. All in all I think the rebar gives a suprisingly nice look to the letters. Very cool!

SmoothBore, thank you for the info, and I agree. I wanted to change the spacing but  this one was how she wanted it. I will use better spacing on any future letters. 

Mtnstream, I can see what you mean about the L. I wanted to remake the A entirely as I didn't like it but she insisted I keep it. I wanted to make it match the v better and I botched the cross part. 

I appreciate the ideas.

 

 

We want our work to look better, more precise than a machine, wile our clients like "hair" hanging off it. 

"better" is "more pleasing to the person stuffing money in our pockets".   You might want to do a story board showing how differing  arrangements look.  Could even do it with zeroxed versions of those letters.  I could even see it with the A as the basis and the "side" letters canted along the A's sides.

The L: I'd draw out the corner a bit so you could hammer it back in to square it up a bit on the outside, fast and easy.

(I've told this one numerous times...I once had a commission for a pot rack; but I wasn't sure if the person commissioning it and I were using the same words the same way.  So I took the worse piece of steel in my scrap pile---looked like it had been buried under a manure pile for a decade or more and forged a miniature.  She loved it and *wanted* the horribly pitted surface and the quick and dirty forging in the full sized piece.  Sigh.  Teach me to give the customer ideas!)

17 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

We want our work to look better, more precise than a machine, wile our clients like "hair" hanging off it. 

Lol. A lot of times, yes.  sometimes I'm the perfect man for that job.   If I ever end up a fraction as good as some of the guys/ gals here I think I could call that a success.  That's why I'm here, to learn. 

I think that it shouldn't look too perfect or it would lose its character.  In fact, I'd weld a large nut onto the wrench in the space between the "A" and the "I" in order to fill the space and add to the tool theme.  Maybe even put one in the center of the "V" as well to balance it out.  The imperfections create the feeling of "work in progress" which is really every tinkerer's mantra.  I'm guessing that is what your client's father is.  Heck, a slightly crooked letter would even work the way I see this piece.  Exaggerating imperfections is the best way to hide them!

Thanks for the idea, btw, I'm stealing it.  I really like the effect caused by the ridges on the rebar.  Not realizing it was rebar when I first saw the picture I thought to myself, "wow, nice craftsmanship making those uniform ridges on the letters!  It must have been a pain to do...."

we refer to that style as "rustic" down here along the border...

Thomas, those are good points. Just made me realize if I'd have done the steps differently I could have done better. And the storyboard idea is a good one. 

Hah, yeah now recreate natures beautiful imperfections in new steel. Good story. 

 

Lou, thanks. Good ideas. Thanks, feel free to use the idea  I'm sure I'm not the first one to do it. 

10 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

We want our work to look better, more precise than a machine, wile our clients like "hair" hanging off it. 

We're not talking about plating dinner are we Charles?

Looks fine just the way the customer likes it. Lots of good feedback to tuck away in the little tool kit in my head. Spacing the letters is gold!

A nut in the wrench gives me an idea for a wall hanger. A wall anchor that accepts bolts which heads fit the wrench and an in your face hidden hanger. Just a drop of Elmers or clear calk on each bolt head before hanging the . . . wall hanger thingy and it's secure but easy to remove.

Nice job all round, I really like the idea of something good to do with rebar!

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks Frosty. It is a lot of good info as always. Great minds here on IFI. 

Rebar has a lot of forging uses. Just not in critical forged items like important tools, knives, etc. funny enough, a friend broke a dent pick tool I made from rebar today at work. It had served me well for 2 years. Guess he didn't know its limitations. Now we know. It's been a great tool so I'll have to remake it with some better steel. 

Frosty - I like the nut in the wrench hanging idea! I'm going to use that.

Das - Nice work! I always look forward to seeing the projects that you create!

Thanks Freddy. I'm always looking forward to seeing what others are making as well. 

With all the info I got here and some ideas on how to make the letters different, I'm anxious to try some more. 

Me too Das, this thread has given me a bushel basket of ideas to play with.

Ideas is one reason I love places like Iforge, it's better than a brainstorm, brainicane? Brainnado?, Brainyphoon. Thats IT, a BRAINYPHOON!! So many ideas coming at you from everywhere it makes your brain spin like a . . . BRAINYPHOON!

Frosty The Lucky.

Careful, it could go Super BraiNova  

We don't want it collapsing into a Brain hole.

17 hours ago, MrDarkNebulah said:

We don't want it collapsing into a Brain hole.

Does that mean you don't want to cross a blacksmithing event horizon?

Frosty The Lucky.

A blacksmithing black hole is a dangerous thing...

No known particles can escape its pull...not even wifium and childrenium, despite their mass and speed, can escape the blacksmithing event horizon (Schwarzschild radius in nerd speak).

Just caught up with this thread, Das. Always interesting to see your ideas and nice to see something good come from rebar besides snakes! I concur with ideas expressed about what the customer wants. I don't worry about smoothing out the horns on the bull head lifters because so many people comment that a few hammer marks show it wasn't mass produced in a stamping factory in Taiwan.

(And as an aside: I had some Japanese tourists visit my forge today and they were looking at a set of wall hooks I had made from reject spanners. They were stamped with Japanese symbols and I have often wondered what it said. Anyway, this time I had the presence of mind to ask. They turned them over a couple of times before responding ... Ah! MAKITA! Now I know!)

Thanks Aus. I just got back from a weekend trip to Rochester NewYork with my friend for her dads wedding. He loved it, and participating in the fun, good food and drinks was a great tip. 

Pretty neat side story. Makita is a well known brand of tools. 

 

 

Quad-State is an interesting phenomenon:  more and more blacksmiths and stuff accrete  during the week and then on sunday there is a massive outflow of people and stuff---people generally back the way they came, Stuff is redistributed...

 

Thomas, sounds like a once a year gravitational tidal effect of anvils and steel moving into one location. 

I keep hoping they are migrating to spawn...but none of the anvils I have brought there have. (having Mr Postman look at a few oddballs in person)

Bring G-I-R-L anvils Thomas. <SHEESH!>

Frosty The Lucky.