Of leaves and leaving...

So lately there has been a flurry of projects which incorporate leaves into the design in some way. In fact it seems to be a running theme this year which I'm quite happy about. I do like a good forged leaf. As the title of the post suggests, I'm also moving...
I'll admit that I'm a bit sad...more than a bit sad...but hopefully that won't last long.

As promised I'll try and update you on all the projects I've been neglecting to write about, starting with a really lovely, stylized, forged tree.

The first thing that always happens with a project is the design (done by Jim) and then the full sized drawing (also done by Jim) and then I start work on measuring out materials and cutting lengths ready to forge, form and assemble. This design was nice to work on because it involved making four identical sections which would then be fitted together with the trunk. It was good practice for me getting to grips with cold bending on the flypress (something I was not enthusiastic about when I first started working at The Blazing Blacksmith') with varying sizes of material.

The main frame of the tree, branches and some of the leaves were made up of different sizes of round bar which were shaped, cut neatly and welded together.

The rest of the leaves were plasma cut, dressed off and then forged on the power hammer.

Leaf blank ready to be heated

Central vein marked using the power hammer

First side of the leaf done

Finished leaf

Many finished leaves

So once all the leaves were forged I had to plasma cut a section of sheet for the trunk of the tree to give it some stability.

Then everything was set up and welded together.

After it was welded, it got sent of to be galvanized and came back looking like this...

Shiny tree...

Unfortunately it didn't stay shiny for long because it needed to be T-washed.

Finished tree next to me...

So there's the finished tree. I really enjoyed this project and I think the tree looks lovely. The client loved it and actually commissioned some brackets to be made in the same style with the leftover leaves that I'd forged.

Design drawing

Componants for brackets

Tacked and ready to weld together

Four finished brackets

So that was another wee project I enjoyed a lot.

I'm going to leave this here (pun intended...) and will continue to update you on previous projects before letting you see what I'm helping Jim with just now...it's a good one!!!

Take care

x