Hand forged wrought iron scrolls will always have minor variations, however it’s important to check to see that the scrolls are as close in shape as possible

Andrew Hood is one of a few professional artist blacksmiths still practicing this age old craft within the Adelaide area. Located at Birdwood, in the Adelaide Hills he has one of the last forges able to take on large projects as well as small.  Andrew has produced some lovely examples of traditional ironwork with this work being praised by his peers. He was recently awarded two ribbons in the blacksmithing classes at the 2012 Royal Adelaide Show in both the traditional and mixed (traditional & modern) categories, with the judge being an interstate blacksmith.

Blacksmithing is a dying trade with few professional blacksmiths left in Australia, let alone Adelaide or South Australia. Many businesses who advertise ‘wrought iron’ products use imported components, or cast iron products. Tweaking ready made wrought iron to fit is quite difficult, so for something to look well done it needs to be made properly from the start.

Mass produced wrought iron components have their place in fabrication, but they need to be tweaked to fit.

Locally, handcrafted wrought iron may be dearer than mass produced wrought iron or imported products which are made overseas in third world countries, however the benefits of buying your wrought ironwork from Farmweld are that you :

• are guaranteed a quality product;
• supporting local business;
• helping to keep an old trade alive;
• authentic heritage items can be faithfully reproduced and/or repaired using traditional blacksmithing methods;
• investing in an heirloom – something which will be admired and bring pleasure for many decades; and
• your wrought iron is made to last – materials meet Australian standards and are ‘solid’;
• you are buying peace of mind – a reputable tradesperson/ blacksmith will always be there for you should you ever have any questions or issues relating to your purchase.

Custom Wrought Iron can be Affordable

Hand forged wrought iron can be made more affordable by using a combination of traditional and modern metal working techniques. It’s often said that if blacksmiths of old had access to a welder or angle grinder, they’d certainly have used one. An example of how wrought iron can be more affordable is to use a combination of modern welding techniques rather than forge welding or riveting.

Modern blacksmiths have the advantage of using modern and traditional techniques. This piece uses traditional blacksmithed scrolls and ironwork for the fancy parts of the gate, however the frame is welded. Once painted it will be hard to tell that this gate has not been entirely, traditionally blacksmithed.

Modern machines such as welders reduce the overall labour time, which in turn reduces the price of the wrought iron piece. The finer details such as the scrolls are still traditionally blacksmithed so it still looks, and is hand forged. Because the scrollwork and details are hand made, and tailored to your piece, the design is kept in proportion and doesn’t look like a modification.

This reproduction of a heritage farm gate has been entirely hand forged and riveted.

Architectural wrought iron in Adelaide

Custom made wrought iron should be matched to the existing architectural features of the building no matter whether it’s a piece of wrought iron furniture indoors or a wrought iron fence. It’s important to be sympathetic to the architectural style of your home. Unfortunately many renovators with older style homes in the inner Adelaide regions such as North Adelaide, Norwood, Unley, St Peters, Port Adelaide and Thebarton installed ready made ’faux’ wrought iron (pool fencing with spears) and cast iron fences & gates. These types of gates and fencing rarely meld well with the existing architecture. Federation and Art Deco homes, especially the simpler homes, would have had timber, mini-orb or wire fences, and their original owners would have invested in a ‘pretty’ hand forged gate – usually made by the local blacksmith. The beauty of wrought iron is that designs can be tailored to suit particular periods, e.g. art nouveau, Victorian, Art Deco, modern and if done well it will be hard to tell whether the wrought iron piece, such as a gate, is authentic or not. This is the mark of a good addition or renovation. Even if you intend to modernise your home, certain ‘heritage’ features can be picked out and incorporated into the wrought iron piece.

Although the front garden was modernised, the art deco design from the stained glass window of this home was mirrored in the design of the gate

Products

All Farmweld wrought iron products are custom made for each customer. Unique wrought iron pieces can be made from your own design or we can design something for you. Wrought iron products include:

• Gates – courtyard gates, garden gates, estate gates, driveway gates
• Fencing
• Balustrades
• Wrought iron furniture
  • tables
  • bed heads
  • garden furniture, e.g. tree benches
• and anything else that can be made from steel!

Interstate enquiries and commissions are welcome. Farmweld regularly delivers to customers all around Australia.

Recent images of Andrew’s work can be seen on Farmweld’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/farmweld

Unique hand cut metal art for wall art or freestanding garden art

Outdoor metal art for Australian gardens

Create a unique focal point for your home, garden or commercial design project with unique metal garden artwork by Adelaide Hills artist and designer Tricia Hood. Designs are inspired by the natural environment and beauty of the Adelaide Hills property where Tricia and her artist blacksmith husband, Andrew Hood reside. These designs are new to Farmweld and there will be more to come.

Unique metal art, hand drawn and hand cut

Each item of metal art is a unique piece, hand drawn and plasma cut by hand so no two pieces of metal artwork are identical. Designs are individually drawn on the metal, then ‘tweaked’ again when plasma cut by hand.

Tricia can also custom design a stunning piece of metal art for your garden or interior in a contemporary or classic hand cut design to suit your outdoor living area or internal walls. Whatever metal art you choose, you can be guaranteed that you are taking home ‘one of a kind’.

Metal art designs can be wall mounted or made as freestanding metalart on a heavy 10mm plate of mild steel (note: this will rust so avoid placing on paved areas if steel artwork is unsealed).

The beauty of Corten steel creates a lasting impression

Each piece is cut from 3mm corten steel. This ‘sculptors’ steel weathers naturally giving each piece a beautiful natural finish. Corten steel is used in garden sculptures and public art installations for its organic appearance. When rusted, Corten weathering steel has a lovely deep brown-red oxide surface. Unlike mild steel, the layer that develops on the exposed surfaces protects the underlying metal from corroding. The layer stabilises and if exposed regenerates again when subjected to the wet-dry cycles of the weather. Therefore Corten metal sculptures don’t need to be treated in any way prior to installation for longevity.

If you prefer a more finished look, Penetrol can be applied to protect the steel and gives your metal art a lovely leathery patina.

Pieces are sold unrusted ready to weather in your garden. If you don’t like the rust finish your metal art can be powder coated on request. All powder coated pieces have an added cost as the powder coating is outsourced.

Delivery

Available Australia-wide or pick up direct from the studio at Birdwood if you live in South Australia. We’re within a short drive of Adelaide CBD, Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Riverland (Murray Bridge / Mannum).

Prices

Starting from $299  in raw steel. Contact us for prices of individual pieces.

Commissions

Commissions taken. Maximum 3mm corten sheet size 1.2m x 2.4m

Features

• Plasma cut wall art
• Rustic rust finished metal … optional powder coating
• Freestanding design or boxed frame construction
• Use as a light feature … install a single spotlight at base … simple! (light not included)
• Indoor or outdoor
• Australian Designed
• Australian Made
• Unique designs hand cut by the artist

This large wrought iron tree bench is 2.6m in diameter, allowing plenty of space around a large tree.

Another week has passed and as with most, there’s usually one project which stands out as a favourite. This week it was a project for a customer in the Adelaide Hills, in South Australia who had a large tree around with a girth of about 1.2 or 1.4m and she wanted to put a lovely, large wrought iron bench around it. She also wanted a steel tree bench which would last. She had a picture of an English tree bench she liked, but being aware of copyright we weren’t happy about copying someone else’s work. Andrew spent quite a bit of time looking over the design to see how he could make it unique, and that he did. Needless to say he’s not only chuffed with the way it looks but very proud of the fact that he can dance a jig on it as well – so we know it will support well over 100kg of weight on it (not sure about the lawn underneath though). I think this steel tree bench will outlast the owner’s lifetime! Made in two halves the wrought iron bench is easy enough to put around any tree without damaging plants. We set it up temporarily on our front lawn for these photos – it’s a bit wonky as it wasn’t bolted together. My favourite bits are the lovely hand forged wrought iron legs.

One section of the tree bench

This tree bench is 2.6m in diameter with an inner diameter of 1.6m. Certainly made for a large tree. We will be developing a smaller one as well which will most likely be larger than our wrought iron tree bench (which is about 1.2m in diameter) and pictured alongside the larger one here:

The large wrought iron tree seat looks huge in comparison to the smaller tree bench.

At Feb 2013, prices start from$1499 for the small tree bench to around $4500 for the larger tree seat. Prices vary according to size and finish – raw steel or powder coated. Like all our other products they are made to order and can be customised in size.

If you’d like information about any of our products don’t hesitate to call us or email.

• having your chimney and flue cleaned.
• Check for loose fire bricks and replace where necessary.
• Remove last years ash and give the heater a good clean out.
• The glass can be cleaned with a damp cloth dipped in ash – yes ash, it acts as an abrasive to remove the tar build up.
• If the outside of your heater is looking a bit faded why not give it a coat of  ’pot belly black’ to spruce it up.

Fire side tools can make the chore of feeding and maintaining a fire a pleasure or a chore. It’s important to use sturdy and well made equipment as the last thing you want is to have a log roll across your floor or embers dropping onto your carpet or wooden floors. Here are a few items we’ve made – the heavy duty fire tongs are my favourite and most used item.

What size does the garden arch need to be?

It’s not only the height and width of the arch, but most importantly the depth that’s important. That is, the distance from the front to the back of your arch as this is what your plant will be growing over. Oddly enough this is the last thing most people consider.

How wide should my arch be?

If you’ve already got a path in situ, the arch should be placed at least 15cm away from the edge. Your foliage will penetrate into the inside of the arch so you don’t want to be rubbing up against it as you walk through – especially if it’s a thorny rose or boganvillea. Will you be pushing a wheelbarrow through? If so you might want to make it about 1.5m wide just in case your barrow is overflowing - there’s nothing worse than losing half the barrrow of weeds and prunings as you walk through your arch way.

How deep should my arch be?

The depth of the arch, from the front to the back, is the most important factor for your plant. Most people will take into consideration the height, as naturally climbers will grow upwards, however plants like roses will grow and bloom best if the canes run horizontally or diagonally.

The canes of this Pierre De Ronsard are trained along diagonal supports in this rose arch. You can see the flowers emerging on the side shoots.

The key to growing climbing roses successfully is to encourage the growth of side shoots which give you more flowers. The way to do this is to train the main canes horizontally because this will encourage side shoots to grow, as can be seen in the photo above. As the shoots grow twist them back and forth to give you lots of horizontal growth. There’s an excellent description here on how to do this.

If your arch is narrow you won’t have much room to run your canes diagonally so it’s important to have the right width, which in most cases is no less than at least 80-100cm wide, but preferably wider. Rose bushes come in many sizes, as do climbing roses. David Austin roses’ website categorises their plants into various categories:

• climbing roses
• hedging roses
• roses for small arches or pillars, and
• roses for pergolas

all varying in size so make sure you choose an appropriate plant and/or rose arch. As you can see from the photo below a climbing rose such as ‘Mrs Fred Danks’ would be unsuitable for an arch. These canes are about 6-8m tall.

The canes on this climbing rose, Mrs Fred Danks, are about 6-8m long. This rose would not be suitable over a rose arch. The verticals have few roses, however the horizontal canes are laden with roses.

How are you going to fix it to the ground?

Don’t rely on your plant anchoring the arch to the ground. If anything, a well covered garden arbour will catch the wind and may blow over in a gale with disastrous results. The legs of the rose arch can be left a bit longer so they can be concreted into the ground. We can allow about 30-40cms at no extra charge. Alternatively if there’s paving or concrete on the ground, then a plate can be welded on so that you can bolt it to the ground.

Do you want your rose arch powder coated or left galvanised?

If part of your arch is going to be left exposed then you may want to consider whether you want to have your arch powder coated or left as is. Powder coating is not cheap and if the majority of the arch is going to be covered with foliage then it may not warrant the additional expense. However if the arch is going to be a feature in itself, then it definitely would look nice powder coated to your choice of colour.

We don’t recommend that you paint the arch as you’ll have to recoat it within 5 years, especially if you’re painting over galvanised pipe as short of using heavy duty primers and industrial paints, the paint won’t adhere to galvanising terribly well. Keep in mind that repainting an arch isn’t easy once there’s foliage over it. Powder coating on the other hand should look good for at least 10 years – so if you want it coloured it’s money well spent.

I hope this article helps you with selecting the right sized rose arch for your garden. To see the range of Farmweld’s garden arch designs click here or to find more blog articles and images on garden arches click here.

A rusty wrought iron gate graces the entrance to this chicken coop stopping the chickens from getting to the vegetable patch. Photo courtesy jake.rohan@gmail.com

Rusty old garden gates and farming implements are much sought after as garden features. Many people love the rusty patina of steel. Learn how to maintain your steel items so they’re around for years to come.

Old gates and garden implements are getting harder to find for sale at auctions, clearing sales, demolition yards and second hand stores. Rusty old garden structures, especially heritage style gates, cast jointed farm gates like the Sunshine McKay and Simpson gates, old farming implements, rusty wagon wheels and quaint wrought iron garden gates are fetching high prices at sales as they get rarer and demand from home renovators, landscapers and gardeners increases. Maintaining any steel item is really important if you want it to last. 

Demand for old rusty gates and garden structures …

The appeal of old, time worn pieces never fades. An established garden is a beautiful and relaxing place to be and garden structures that look like they’ve been there for decades add instant appeal which is why they’re so sought after. Quite often we are asked if our gates and arches can be made from rusty steel. Quite a number of the Farmweld range of gates is made from ‘black steel’. This doesn’t mean it’s black, it’s just another way of saying raw, untreated or ungalvanised steel from the mill which just has a mill coating on it offering light protection. The mill coat might be a thin layer of paint, sometimes blue, or ‘mill scale’.  The mill finish eventually wears away but if you want a new item to rust evenly and quickly, I’d suggest that you have it sandblasted to remove the mill scale or paint residue.

How natural do the colours of this aged steel look against the timber and stones?

The colour of rust …

Believe it or not some people have a preference for brown rust or orange rust.  We can’t dictate the colour. Rust is rust, it starts out as orange and as it ages it takes on a more brownish hue. The colour can’t be controlled as it’s a natural process. If the rust is bright orange then it’s probably fresh oxidation of the steel and your item is still rusting away. You’ll need to seal it from moisture to stop any further weathering and deterioration.

My gate is already rusty so why should I stop more rust developing?

You should always seal raw steel, for a few reasons:

1. Deterioration: If rusty items are not sealed against moisture they will deteriorate and eventually rust away.
2. Staining: You don’t want rust stains on your hands, clothing, furnishings, or rusty water stains on your paving or masonry pillars. Rust stains can be very difficult to remove.

How do I treat wrought iron and rusty items?

If you don’ t know how to protect your rusty items from further deterioration there are a number of sealants on the market.  We recommend and use a product called ‘Penetrol’ which is available from most hardware stores. This product is an oil that dries to a hard varnish-like finish leaving you with a lovely natural brown patina on your steel and wrought iron work.

For newly made steel items we suggest that you:

1. Leave your item out to weather till it reaches the patina you’re after
2. Lightly rub off the really loose rust using fine steel wool. Don’t polish it to bare steel but leave it so it still has a lovely aged and rusty patina.
3. Using a soft brush, apply Penetrol generously. Make sure the oil flows into:
   1. all the nooks and crannies.
   2. the underside of the gate or item you’re sealing.
   3. Any areas where water may sit, e.g. on the low point of scrolls, bottom bars, horizontal surfaces, etc.
4. Seal it with at least two coats of Penetrol.
5. Make sure you dispose of your rags carefully as Penetrol is highly flammable.

For older items just follow steps 2 and 3, or alternatively have it sandblasted. This will give you an opportunity to see if the item needs any repairs. You can then start from step 1.

Maintenance …

Depending on your local conditions rusty gates and garden structures will need regular maintenance. Look over your garden and entrance gates at least once a year and apply Penetrol annually to keep your gates and items in good condition.

If you’ve got any questions or comments please leave them below.

The simple lines of the side pillars contrast with the ornamental top section, and make the wrought iron work on the garden arch stand out as the main feature. Over time, the contrast between the natural brown ironwork and the glossy green leaves of the foliage will make it stand out even more.

Top of wrought iron garden arch showing detail or ironwork

One of our main focuses in the design process and during fabrication is providing a product for people who truly appreciate quality and detail.

Trish couldn’t resist putting the wrought iron bench under the garden arch for this photo. They make a lovely pair.

If you would like to add a unique piece like the one pictured here please contact us. We’d love to hear from you!

Cheers!

The only specs we were initially given was that the courtyard walls would be 1800mm high and that they were thinking of a gateway approximately 1200mm wide. The most important consideration was that the two small terriers may be tempted to try and squeeze through any gaps and their safety had to be taken into account.

The wrought iron courtyard gate is the perfect feature to tie together all the iron elements in this French provincial style courtyard.

At the time of enquiry we were told “we have nothing at this stage – not even the walls…  We’re open to your advice about powder coated vs plain steel as we don’t know the advantages of one over the other.”  In this situation we suggested powder coating. Raw steel looks nice enough but it does require maintenance with an annual coat of Penetrol to stop the gate from rusting away – possibly more so in a tropical environment like Brisbane. Secondly anything that’s rusty is also likely to leave rust stains on paving. As the walls and pavers were light coloured it was advisable to powder coat.

The black powder coating on this gate provides a long lasting, low maintenance finish. The colour contrasts against the light walls of the courtyard making it the main focal point of the courtyard.

The black colour helped to make the wrought iron stand out as a feature. The customers were advised to start building their wall while their gate was being made and to just make sure that the gap for the gateway was to be built to the distance they originally specified and that we’d take care of the rest, making the gate to fit, taking into consideration any gaps and hinge allowances. Although scrolls were initially suggested for the bottom of the gate, vertical bars, spaced closely enough to stop the terriers from getting through were used, and a centre motif added the desired decoration. Vertical bars are much safer than scrolls where dogs, or any animal for that matter, are concerned.

The bar spacing had to be such that the dogs would not be able to squeeze through or injure themselves.

This is the testimonial we got from our customers in Queensland:

“We had no doubts or hesitation buying from Farmweld. Our decision to buy was based on the presentation of your website, which is well illustrated, so we could see exactly what we were getting.

Price was going to be an issue. There is a place near us in Brisbane which is the only place we could find that does this sort of thing. Unfortunately the owners convey the attitude that they are artists of the rarest talent who really should be creating pieces for the Vatican and their prices reflect this lofty attitude. Your work was as good if not better and more realistically priced.

It was a huge benefit in not having to troop around the city looking at places, only to find they didn’t have what we were after. Your website made it easier.

There was a hiccup with the freight company not phoning us when they should have, but when the gate was finally delivered the actual handling, etc. was fine – it was well wrapped and in good order. The gate has worked really well for the dogs and we love it.

We’d recommend your products to our friends and work colleagues. When they see our gate I know they will want one, and probably after a few drinks they will quietly ask me the price and I’ll tell them it was quite reasonable. “

Michael,
Cannon Hill, Qld

Stockpile of small nut coke at Farmweld, Adelaide Hills

We received our first delivery of Coke today and will have coke for sale with pick up from our Adelaide Hills workshop. Coke is a wonderful fuel preferred by many blacksmiths for forging wrought iron. Coke is sometimes used for fuelling Aga stoves and boilers as it burns very hot and much cleaner than wood or charcoal.

Coke for sale

There has been a shortage of available coke in Adelaide. Stirling Fuel Supplies in the Adelaide Hills used to supply coke but have not done so for a while. As there was a demand amongst blacksmiths, farriers and those needing it as a heat source, we’ve managed to secure a load from the Whyalla in South Australia and have coke available for sale to customers by the tonne or in 30kg bags.

What is Coke?

Give us a call if you need some coke.