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Humidor and forged rail spike letter openers

Started by Ironwood, February 12, 2011, 06:54:36 PM

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Ironwood

Just built a neat humidor for a benefit auction, looked like it crashed in from the set of Pirates of the Carribiean. All the hewn veneer, and true wrought iron came from a monestary near here and was from their 1860's carriage house. This was before I mounted the strapping (original rolling door rail), and custom made the hindges which were integrated into the straps at rear. The rings which are at both sides and the front to lift the lid were forge welded and were originally where the horse reigns were tied off in the long stall. This pic is fairly early in the finishing process. Before oiled and final touches. It went for $1700 all proceeds to the non profit.





Also, my son collected 25 rail road spikes I made into letter openers. Each is unique. Some were wrought others just mild steel. The pic is a bit bad, but they are wire wheeled and waxed. They were popular.





There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Ron Scott

~Ron

Magicman

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WildDog

I like your work Ironwood, I particularly like to see old forged ironwork resurected.
If you start feeling "Blue" ...breath    JD 5510 86hp 4WD loader Lucas 827, Pair of Husky's 372xp, 261 & Stihl 029

Ironwood

Thanks guys, the rail spikes are fun and EASY, just heat, twist, and hammer hammer hammer. ALOT of hammering, but striaght forward. They were fetching $50 each at the event (I gave my son a $1 each for his collecting skills). At 8 I try to reenforce some ability t omake money ;) He briefly shovelled my barbers walk while his younger two brothers were getting hair cuts, I gave the barber the dollar to pay him, just in case she wouldnt :D

As far as old ironwork, I try to "celebrate" the old ways. I provide true wrought to Colonial Williamsburg, and Mount Vernon. Might say we REALLY like wrought iron.

Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

woodsy

Hey nice work Ironwood.  I'm no blacksmith but my Dad is so I have an appreciation for the work.  I like the use of the train spikes.

Your boy working for a dollar or two cracks me up.  My 5 year old is nuts for legos so he is doing any little chore he can to earn a dollar here and there.  Haven't seen the house this clean since he was born.  :D   First thing he said to me this morning was hey dad we could go up to the shop and build a little kids table with chairs to sell.
LT40HDG38, Logrite T36 log arch, 42 hp Kubota, 6 foot cross cut saw, lots of axes and not enough time

Ironwood

Ahhh, LEGOs. My 8 year old is a budding engineer with those things, has no interest in sports, just books and legos. He'll be some sort of scientist I am sure. His younger two brothers will likely be sports minded, well at least he middle one, youngest will be some sort of wrestler, scrapper, he fears nothing no one :D

The spikes are small enough that they can be made with a burning torch set up, just heat and hammer. No forge necessary. Getting the twist confined to the first 2-3" is the key, I had a hardie to hold the square shaft at about that length while I twisted it. It had a set of parallel bars just far enough apart to hold it fast, then clamp the head w/ vice grips and twist (dont forget to cool the vice grips between twisting)

Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Chris Burchfield

They look nice.  I've made a few over the years.  If you check the head of the spike to see a "C" or "HC."  This identifies "Carbon" or "High Carbon" for each spike.  The High Carbon were used in curves of the rails.  The Carbon was used along straight runs.  Of course, the high carbons will hold a better edge.
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CX3

Love the craftmanship.  We have a sell at our church every year from handmade items that members bring in and we auction them off.  I usually take a good dry cord of wood, and it brings about 250.  This year I carved a cross with a chainsaw out of a chunk of walnut, and it brought 190.  All the guys have a contest to see who has the item worth the most money, and theres a guy that wins nearly every year with handmade knives. 
John 3:16
You Better Believe It!

Warbird

That humidor is awesome!!  Well done.  I would love to see more pictures, if you have them.  I have a couple of humidors, as I used to smoke cigars quite a bit.  Was really into the whole history of cigars, collecting them, aging them, etc. 

scsmith42

Reid, those are both very cool!  Thanks for sharing.

Like the others, I'd love to see some more photo's of that humidor as it progressed through the various steps to make it.

Scott
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and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Ironwood

Well thanks, I am going to get together with the buyer at his some time in the future. I will get some pics. Quite frankly I finished it at 4 am and was off to the event that day. I also organized all the other artists and lets just say it was a big job. I got 9 hour sleep in three nights total. The organization is called Old Joes Club, and it is a $500-1000 a plate for 100 men. Shooting trap, catered lunch, cocktail hour(S), then dinner, auction, poker and then up to their rooms, ususally 2 am+.  They raise 200,000+ in the one night. Sponsors are Monet Hennessey (wine), Orvis, Davidoff (cigars). Lets just say the smoke gets a little thick at dinner. I have little taste for cigars or wine, but they said I was smoking $30 cigars : ::), and the wine, well lets just say some folks can drop ALOT of money on wine.

Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

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