[TheForge] Re: Need shop space?

[Mike Spencer]

> I agree and just how many railing jobs would need a 
> 10,000lb hammer?

Y'know, when they build new gummint buildings that need elevated
security against truck bombs -- especially embassies where heads of
state may show up in white tie and limos -- Jersey barriers and razor
wire are just soooo ugly and infra dig.  I've often thought that a
bunch of vertical, solid 4x4 or 6x6 chunks of iron would make a much
more artistic barrier, provided you had an industrial-scale forge and
a really big hammer to mash them about a bit in interesting ways.

It would even make an interesting design project for a workshop:
Assume a 10,000# hammer, bridge crane, huge furnace and all the
peripheral sundries and helpers.  Design 200 yards of fence that is
elegant, interesting and capable of stopping a 40-ton truck or even a
tank withou making the place look like a Star Wars fortress.

There's a Brit -- name eludes me, I can't find the slides and, IIRC,
he's left smithing and gone on to something else -- who made a fence
from large chunks of heavy plate.  Torched out large (chestnut? oak?)
leaf cluster shapes, forged the leaves and welded tham back in.  A
subterfuge because his shop didn't have a power hammer, very effective
and elegant.  I'm guessing a similar effect could be acheived with
even heavier bar stock and a huge hammer.

You know, like Al Paley, only big. :-)


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^