I was contacted recently by a homeowner who had installed a new sidewalk in his backyard. The walking path had been wet and muddy, so it needed to be raised and a more solid walking surface installed. The backyard is surrounded by an antique wrought iron fence and gate. Unfortunately, the new sidewalk interfered with the opening of the gate.
He had found a temporary solution of raising the gate but was looking for a solution that was both more solid and fitting with the aesthetics of the fence. After examining some photos of his fence, I came up with a possible solution for raising the gate. Measurements were taken of the gate using the temporary solution and I took some photos with a large ruler.
I like to photograph the environment with a large ruler for scale. As I discussed in a previous post, this allows me to import the photo into Fusion 360 and design parts to the environment. Using the photo as a guide I did a quick mockup of the parts and sent them to the client with an estimate for approval.
He was happy with the design, so I set out to finalize dimensions and print out drawings. I like to print out drawings to take to the shop. I have found that it is easier to reference a physical drawing than try to find it on my phone.
The simple design of the brackets meant that they went together quickly. To fit with the aesthetics of the original fence and gate, all the holes were punched and drifted. This process involves punching a smaller hole than the final dimension and then driving a drift of the correct size through the hole. This is done hot. The result causes some distortion in the overall shape of the piece, at the outer edges. I like the effect and use it when I can. The final piece has a form that isn’t achievable by drilling a hole.
After the pieces were forged, I took them by the client’s home to do a test fit. There was a spacing issue with the gate latch that required the pieces to be shortened by a fraction of an inch. Back at the shop the material was removed and the piece reriveted back together.
The parts were cleaned with acid to remove mill scale and zinc coatings. For a fence of this age and patina, shiny mounting hardware stands out too much for my taste. Simply painting the parts would also be out of place with the surrounding elements. I chose to use a Japanese Brown patina from Sculpt Nouveau to color the metal. This gives the steel a brown look that does a much better job of blending in with the antique components.
The modified and finished brackets were then installed. The final look blended in well with the patina of the fence. The use of negative space in the design insured that they brackets are not a focal point when viewing the gate.
