Wednesday, August 13, 2008

How I make the Dogwood Flower

I cut the rough shape of the dogwood flower out of 18 gauge steel with a plasma cutter, I then heat the piece of metal to a cherry red in my forge, I then use a chisel with the cutting edge rounded off to give each petal of the flower some texture. I then heat the metal again and forge each petal into shape with a hammer and a block of oak wood. I make sure my doors are open and all the fans are on because the smoke gets pretty bad, from the wood burning from the hot metal.Once the flower is close to the right shape, I'll heat it up again and give it all the finishing touches with a pair of pliers and tongs. Once the flower is made,I forge out a stem made from whatever roundstock I have laying around. I then weld the flowers to the stem add some leaves and any other detail I need.Once it is done to where I like it ,I wire brush it and clear coat it to keep it from rusting.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

interesting