I've had a charity I annually support ask me about making several textured "branches" that will be wall mounted in their office (from which leaves enscribed with donors/supporters names will hang).  I know exactly what they want, the illusion of a branch growing out of the wall.  To get that, the branch would need to be flush, hidden mounted...somehow.  I'm assuming two anchor points for each branch, so I can design 16" on center mount points, but I have no idea how to mount flush without a visible screw or bolt.   ????  Help?

 Make a keyhole on the back of the branch, something that's not visible from the front. Then put a screw in the wall (perhaps with a wall anchor), and slip the keyhole over that. 

I figured key hole would be best to make it flush to the wall but I can't seem to wrap my school-addled brain around how to forge that exactly, the little part that has the slot the screw slides UP into?   I think my Senior Brain only has so much capacity, and right now it's full of research papers!   Some help on how to forge a keyhole slot? 

If it were me, I'd probably punch a number of keyholes into a flat bar, cut the bar into sections, and weld the sections over pre-punched holes in the branches, grinding and/or forging to finish. 

I don't know how practical forging the slot would be but it could be done by slitting the end of the branch/stock into two tabs or fingers. Space the two fingers to fit snug on the shaft of the anchor screw and then heat and fold them back over the base of the branch to sandwich the head of the screw.

You could also bend some thin stock into a "U" shape and then weld it into one end of an oblong pre-punched hole, with the open end of the "U" towards the other end of the hole. 

Why not just use normal screw holes but forge the screw heads into leaves ....if you use a standard screw first to make a threaded hole, it can then be replaced with leaf head screw by hand....!

 

A "keyhole" doesn't have to look like the old school keyhole. Think dovetail, just a tapered slot that will hook over a screw or nail head and be held by gravity.

I like the idea of making one or more of the leaf stems screws. That is a beautiful bit of simple efficiency.

Frosty The Lucky.

Easy keyhole; drill a hole then file a slot with a round file.

But doesn't a keyhole require both the slot and the sleeve for the screw head to slip up into?  I get drilling the hole and filing or punching in a slot, but can't get my head around that sleeve for the screw head.

I like Frostys suggestion of using a dovetail. Make the dovetail tapered top to bottom and it'll slide on so far and stop.

I might have to try one soon on a couple projects I have rattling around in my confused little brain.

15 hours ago, SpankySmith said:

But doesn't a keyhole require both the slot and the sleeve for the screw head to slip up into?  I get drilling the hole and filing or punching in a slot, but can't get my head around that sleeve for the screw head.

No not at all.

Assuming you make the branch from pipe just the head of the screw fits into the pipe.

The hole needs to be larger than the screw head, the slot just larger than the shank but smaller than the head.

The slot needs to point upwards.

Drill through branch and countersink or counterbore. Screw straight into studs, prayerfully on 16" centers. Fill countersinks with some sort of putty, maybe even jb weld. Sand smooth and paint.

Frank, whilst pondering this topic that thought had occurred to me, I've used JB Weld before, my only hesitation was the client hasn't told me whether they want a painted branch or a polished one.  I'm supposed to meet with them sometime soon to see exactly what they are looking for.  If it's polished hiding the screw hole with something like JB Weld is just a bit trickier - doable but trickier.  

 

drill the screwhole a bit deeper, run the screw all the way down and then epoxy on the ladybug/lady bird you forged to cover it.  I've seen this done using rivets to cover a hole in a flower that was forged.