[TheForge] Woodwright's shop

[Walter Mullett]

I saw a new episode of the Woodwright's shop yesterday - at least one I had
not seen before.  Roy was at the Williamsburg BS shop where they made a
"drop catch" shutter dog rather than the common pivoting dog.  
 
This piece required drawing, upsetting, welding, and drifting.  A real
interesting item and process.  It consisted of a drive pin, about 5/8" dia.
to go into the masonry wall with a lengthwise slit of about 3" in it for
another piece to fit through.  This second piece was the catch that pivoted
in the lengthwise direction through that slot.
 
The process they used was different than most of us probably would have
done.  Instead of slitting the piece, they welded a loop which they then
drifted with a thin, wide drift.  For the catch, they flattened a section of
a piece, put half fullered "notch" in that area, then bent the flat around
and welded it to form a corner.  ...Hard to describe.
 
I've not done any wrought, but I wonder how much of this process was
required because they were working with wrought iron rather than steel.  
 
Walt