Ornamental Railings

[Matt_in_Brooklyn]

Pros I am sure would laugh at me I screwed the outside part of the frame down to my wood work bench and squared it, before I welded it. Just soaked the table with some water and and with a fire extinguisher just tacked it up. Stayed square and gave my work bench some personality.

I won't laugh, that's how I plan on doing mine!

[Jack Olsen]

My jig was mostly wood. I wouldn't recommend mixing wood and welding on a regular basis, but I had no fire problems welding on it.

[smooth72]

I have caught more things on fire welding than I ever have welding, probably because my welds are bad and I have to grind so much.

[billybee60]

Very nice job on the gate. I am coming from the blacksmith side and there are very few people that are willing to pay for the hand forged artisitic approach. When we get that kind of job it is the greatest because the design is usually a one off thing that follows a client specified theme. My experience has been that most of that type of work comes through clients seeing my work and architects doing high end designs. On the other hand the gate shows an interesting design approach and demonstrates what can be done to make the cost more reasonable for a customer that wants something special bit can't afford the high end price.
Thanks for sharing!

[smooth72]

Thanks for the comments. I love the look of the true blacksmith work, I just can not do it or do I have the patients. I hope their will alway be someone out there keeping that art of blacksmith alive.

[billybee60]

Check out ABANA.org. There are about 5,000 members and chapters all over the US and other countries as well. The international conference is in Memphis starting June 2nd. There is a gallery and three days of demonstrations.

[Pro-Fab]

My primary source of income is custom gates and Custom fence. As a designer/ Weldor/ Business Owner, blacksmiths have appreciated my outsourcing very much. It is not to say that I can not do what they do, however, it maybe too timeconsuming and cut proffits. Not to mention if I were to do everybit of work myself my prices would be throug hthe roof and my market would be so slinder that my bank account would follow. As a business owner you need to work most efficiently (ie most profitably) while still working under strict ethics to provide the consumer with a product that they are very happy with and payed the RIGHT price for... not the cheapest, not the most expensive but the right price for the right work. You can play up your prices and call down on discounts but in the end the right price is the right price.

Out sourcing to the black smith is creating what we call business networking. the more work you throw there way the better bang for your buck. this means your quality of work goes up, the price in bulk goes down and you get return customers as do the black smiths in you. outsourcing is a very efficient way to maximize proffits and minimize expenses. Just remember your ethics when dealing with others yourself.

[Pass-N-Gas]

All of this talk of old time blacksmith techniques makes me want to sell the welding machines, I could then buy a bellows get a bed coals and beat on things with a hammer