Gothic Rail Study
(click to enlarge)
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 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.