[TheForge] Re: Big Jig Saw Puzzle

[Mike Spencer]

> Could the scraps from a Beverly shear be reconstructed?

What you have here is the nascent germ of an idea that Stuart Hill
used  and, as far as I know, originated.

You want to make a big thing but your tools can only handle medium
things.  So you take a piece of plate, torch out a shape, forge the
cutout into a nice shape and weld it back into the hole.

Stuart did this with a fence. Big (maybe 4'x8'x1/2"?) plates with a
chestnut leaf cluster torched out.  The individual leaf cutouts were
forged into artistically realistic leaves and a stem, then welded back
into the large panels.  Several panels between existing stone
(concrete?) posts made a great fence, visually very effective, not to
mention sturdy. :-)

I used his technique to cut out circles in 3/16" plate, forge the
circles into rose petals and weld them back in place.

(For those interested, Stuart Hill has had a notably varied and
eccentric career since his days as a brilliant artist blacksmith.
See: http://www.freeforvik.com/ or

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/16/captain-calamity-rescued-for-8th-time-after-setting-sail-in-floating-wardrobe-86908-20738468/


- Mike

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