Excellent!!! glad you got the job, didn't see your design, but these pieces look interesting and fun! Bronze is so expensive...at least here in the NE...good luck, keep us posted...Steelyjan38

T%Hanks Stephen, I love working organic shapes and techniques.

I'm glad too Rich, I'm not so upset about the bronze as I'm more confortable with steel anyhoo.

Ries, glad you asked.
These are 1/2" round cut to ~60" tappered on the old hammer then cut in half making two pcs about 4' long. Got the hammer work down to 4 heats and I got really good at sitting down to work at the hammer Ahhh.
To twist them I put the fat end of the tapper in the vise with about 1' of hot material just out beond the jaws, yanked the cold end near perpendicular to the jaws and then went into this windmill kinda move, maby like cranking a Modle T. I diddn't really twist like you would with a machine or a wrench, the twist occures from going round and round. Some are bunched up kind of like a rubber band will do if you keep twisting it untill it doubles back on itself. The little ends handeled with tongs and requireing a true twisting motion.

Steely theres a image in here somewhere named jellyfish , its the concept for the rail and the newls will be like that, the rest will be panels that hold glass up the stair and around the balcony.

KevinW

Kevin,

Thanks for the description of the twisting/winding process - made perfect sense to me. Maybe I'm twisted?

It sounds like this is going to be a really nice looking project when finished - do you have a sketch of the plan concept? I'm looking forward to seeing some progress pictures.

Working with silicon bronze is no big deal, once you get over thinking about just how much the stuff is worth. It's only the first few hundred bucks' worth that makes you sweat, after that it's just like forging anything else (just more zeroes after the dollar sign). (Grin) At least you don't have to worry about rust...

Rich