Moroccan style gaurd rail

Nearing completion of the latest handrail.  The homeowners are building a house with a Moroccan aesthetic and this rail will compliment it nicely. We were forging and setting collars today, and welding (lots of welding on this job) the laser cut panels in place.

hand forged firewood rack

A small firewood rack I recently completed. The sheet metal floors are scraps that I used to practice patinas on, they were behind the powerhammer and covered in grease - cleaned up they look great!

hand-forged firewood rack

 I just acquired a small combo shear, brake and roll so the small bit of sheet metal work was the perfect project to start dialing in the new (to me) tool. 

Joining the piece was a trick - I finally had to tack weld it so I could set the split tenons. I added the little paper rack after the main rack was joined - bit of a wrestling match setting those rivets!

the cantilever table

This table features a beautiful slab of double live edge redwood, roughly 9 feet long by three feet wide. The client and I thought it'd be cool to design a base with only one support, not only to minimize the potential for leg obstruction, but also to mimic the cantilever of a plum tree behind the table.

I welded a sizable anchor to the leg and set it in concrete in a void in the patio slab. Used about 6 bags of redimix.
Table here is freshly sandblasted and ready for the rusting solution. I used a solution of  ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) and water.

Here it is with the concrete still green and a temporary support in place. See that cool plum tree?

Wrought Iron bookshelf

 Built this heavy duty wrought iron bookshelf recently.
Uprights are 1/2 x 3 textured flat bar. All the mortises were
drilled and drifted to accept the tenon on the bracket.

completed custom barn doors and roller track assembly in Bend, OR

Finished the doors and installed them yesterday. Installation went smoothly and doors look and work great!
Pretty much maxed out the space capacity of the trailer - but they rode fine. Got an early start to beat the traffic and to ensure we'd get a parking spot (well, okay, like 6 spots) in front of the store they are installed in.

 Doors installed and fully open. They roll pretty easily, despite weighing nearly 500 pounds apiece. The custom hardware works very well, and looks heavy duty and industrial.

 Doors fully closed. Nailed the reveal - 1/8 gap, top to bottom.

custom barn doors and track hardware by orion forge

I've been working on two large steel doors (9'2" h x 8'6" w) for a local retail store in Bend, Oregon. It's been quite a project.  I've learned a lot about welding light tubing and sheet; before this project I'd never even purchased 22 gauge steel sheet before, much less welded it. I also have never tried to patina such a large expanse - challenging operation! Doors are mostly complete at this point - still working on building the custom rollers and track hardware and then have to install everything. Doors weigh approximately 475 pounds so moving them is tough.

 Welded .065 wall 1.5" tube frame sheeted with 22 gauge. installed 1.5" rigid foam insulation inside frame to help dampen sound and take some of the drum effect out of the doors.

 After the patina went on, steel trim was installed by stitch welding perimeter and passing some rivets through entire door and plug welding the back side.

 Detail of the steel trim. Dozens of rivets - most of them just for show. 







                                                                
                                                               Heavy duty rollers!

  Long track! Drilling mounting holes on 17' bars meant meant moving the drill press to the middle of the shop.













Doors feel pretty big when they are stood up in the shop. excited to see them side by side when they are installed!                                   

hand forged mirror frame

After the scrolls were forged (see post below), I textured the vertical flat bars under the powerhammer. Here is a picture of them textured. I also forged the offsets so that the horizontal bars can pass beneath them and ultimately rivet together.
 

                                



















All the pieces forged and laid out. Ready for fit-up and assembly.

Fully assembled and freshly waxed. Ready for glass!

hand forged mirror frame

My latest commission is a large, hand forged mirror. The frame design is modeled after a stair guard railing that I built and installed several years ago (pictured below). The mirror will hang near the railing and together the two will be a solid representation of Orion Forge.
Below are a few pictures of my progress so far:

                                          Initial drawings on paper.

                                         Design then transferred to layout table.

                                          I built a jig to ensure all scrolls would be exactly the same.

                                        Completed scrolls.

fire pot

I found this tank end at the scrap yard with the intent of using it as a fire pot for a recent commission. I trimmed a bit of the sidewall down and sanded the edge, and then torch cut a couple of "cracks" in it to add to the clay artifact look it has.

fire pot

Forging and fitting the legs to the pot.  Each leg is unique,  I started with a general idea of how i wanted it to look, and then started bending. I enjoy forging organic forms - these had to match the radius of the pot, but beyond that they could kinda go wild.

fire pot

                                          The legs waxed and ready to rivet onto the pot

                                      Riveting complete. Ready for fire!

12 foot gate at the entrance to the badlands wilderness

this gate is east of bend at the entrance to the badlands wilderness. the horizontal fields are made of scrap steel. since I took the photo, a split rail fence has been added. not really a blacksmithing project, but a fun fabrication job.

bending it

Bending a 1 1/2" round bar for a hand rail return.

Finger joints - one of a few subtle forged details on a mostly fabricated job.

Steel and cable job

Cable, treads, and grab rail make the stairs complete. Kellen and I were proud of this one, whole project installed in one day!


The bulk of the project installed - still need to run all the 1/8" stainless aircraft cable.

Just some delicate fine tuning on-site...

Four flights of stairs fit nicely in the back of the rig.

Kellen grinding away on the stair jig.