G i l g a m e s h F o r g e

architectural work

"g o t h i c r a i l i n g s t u d y"

Job: In-Shop Production

Date: January 2002

Overview: An exercise in iron, this railing sample is an excellent example of traditional blacksmithing joinery. The entire grill is held together by tension alone, with forged open collars drawing the rings into an exceptionally tight panel. The frame is forged 1 inch square bar, and is joined via peened tenon and hole. Overall it is a very nice manipulation of negative space, and would also work very well as an element in a gate, room divider, window grille, firescreen, etc. To elaborate on the infinite design choices, the interlocked elements could be varied in a number of ways – squares instead of rings, different twists, different sized stock, different details on the collars, or even the addition of copper, bronze, brass or stainless steel. The size of the panels could also be varied to fit within almost any dimension.

click thumbnails below for more shots of rail

b a c k