21 August 2001
A Recently Completed Bronze Railing
A client who does a lot of gardening wanted some infill to go below an existing handrail of
copper pipe. I designed two types of free form panels based on some of the plantings in front of
the house. One is based on some ornamental grasses; I made my own wavy angle stock using a v-block in a punch press. The punch press a very accurate repeating stroke and can be used to bend
the V without forging it. The other design is based on sunflower stalks weighed down by the
weight of their heads. I made big piles of roughly formed parts from my hot forging processes and
then bent the pieces to fit each panel using bending forks in the vise. I made two batches of
panels and two installation trips to avoid tying up the shop for an excessive period of time.
See the step by step construction of an ornate traditional railing.