David Kailey Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 So......I suggested "wall art" in the, what can I make page. 14 hours later this is what it got. I am calling it "Remnant" Because it was forges out of failed pieces and left over drops. We all have that pile of short steel that we hold on to because one time 9 years ago we needed a 3" piece and had to cut into a fresh 20' stick.....so now we don't throw anything over 2" away........but we never really use much of it.....well my hoard was growing and starting to attack my shop space with ill intent. I drew this project up about 3 years ago......and it was time to get it done. I wanted to have the assumption of a frame without the frame. I wanted tenons, drifted holes, dog boned flat bar, curves, upset corners, twists, hard and soft lines and lastly........some obnoxious riot gate rivets. this piece is about 21" across by 38' tall, weight is about 35lbs. The 3 frame pieces are 3/16" x 1 1/2" I upset the sides down the length of the stock down to 1" left about 1 1/2" untouched at each end, this gives the steel the appearance of being fullered with wide grove. I had some twist experiments so I forged a foot to mount them and riveted them on. I then forge chunks of 1/2"-3/4" square, 1"-2" x 3/16"/ 1/4" flat bar and a round bar scrap. At any rate several hours of forging later I have all my parts done and bolted the entire piece together and made some adjustments. Because of the theme of this piece and the fact that I wanted a dark steel piece I only wire brushed the pieces by hand while they were hot. I don't want any burnished silver metal on the piece. Here is my sketch which i altered a lot.......its art, and its mine.....so I can do whatever I want. lol. Anyway moving on. Here I have forged several pieces and decided on a rivet that i really like. Its in the top right corner.......I ended up making 11 of them but one had to be cut down. At this point a lot of thought and planning starts to slow down progress, each piece now is associating with not just 1 other piece but 2,3 and even 4 other pieces. Everything must work together. I use bolts to fasten the pieces tightly together so I can make small adjustments as I forge new pieces. this makes assembly must faster and I have less alignment issues. Due to the nature of the pieces I had to get creative with my ability to drill nice, centered, and useful holes. lol. I always wondered what that slot on the vise was for. At this point all the pieces are forged and bolted together. I really had to pay attention now so I could rivet and peen my tenons in the right order. With so many over lapping junctions and pieces if not assembled in the right order some of the fastening points would be unreachable. During assembly one of my tenons snapped of.......ah crap......I simply plug welded it the welded the tenon over the lug weld and peened it over like a normal tenon.......lol.....if I had not said anything you'd never notice...even if your got really close. But I learned a new trick........you "purest".... just relax its not the end of the world. lol Here is the completed piece. I used a torch to spot heat sections and make adjustments to bring everything back into alignment. It was a fun project and I learned a lot from it. If i do anything like this again it will be better and easier. I got to use 11 big, obnoxious, gody, rivets!!!! That really is the point of these monthly "what can i make" it to get you in the smithy forging. If your forging, your learning. Push yourself outside your comfort zone and see what happens.....there are no , knowledge being gained and that is what allows us to say......."I forge Iron" have a good time and make some wall art!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedgemon Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Excellent, inspiring concept and execution - I like !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Stephens Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 David, I love it. You do put a lot more thought into pieces that I usually do. I must also be greedier than you I save 1" pieces. Here's a handrail section put together from found, saved, couldn't bring myself to throw away stuff. The dark rectangle, is two pieces of an old bridge with about a 1" rivet through them. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Nice work David. I like those rivets. Not sure if I missed it but how are you mounting this on the wall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kailey Posted May 11, 2017 Author Share Posted May 11, 2017 On 5/6/2017 at 8:13 AM, Daswulf said: Nice work David. I like those rivets. Not sure if I missed it but how are you mounting this on the wall? with a nail lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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