Cast Iron Fence: We Can Rebuild It
Here’s a fun guest post from a Clinton Hill brownstone owner… The story: Our 130-year old iron fence was in terrible shape, barely standing at all—the last of the five identical houses in our row to have even pieces of the original. I had Vinnie from Italian Art Iron Works on Bergen Street out to…
Here’s a fun guest post from a Clinton Hill brownstone owner…
The story: Our 130-year old iron fence was in terrible shape, barely standing at all—the last of the five identical houses in our row to have even pieces of the original. I had Vinnie from Italian Art Iron Works on Bergen Street out to look at it, and was still skeptical that it could be saved. It was missing 17 arrows and five of the seven post-end caps. Fortunately, previous owners saved 16 arrows, so at least we had those. Vinnie says to me, “You gotta spend-a the money.” So I did. Here’s a photo of Vinnie’s guy putting the pieces together along with one of what it looks like now. But that spikey finial you see below was one of only two that we had. I scoured the salvage places, emailed photos to Olde Good Things and all the rest—nada. Vinnie ballparked that it could cost us $4,000 to have new ones cast—yikes!
And then…
…my architect found these guys: Tomahawk Foundry in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, of all places. I sent them a picture and described what I needed. They said they’d do it for $150 apiece. I sent them one of the remaining finials. Three weeks later, they sent me the parts—gray iron, cast in sand. Original on the left, replica on the right. Perfect.
So if you’re looking to bring your iron fence back to life and can’t find all the pieces, there ya go. Fence should be complete again within a couple of weeks. And Bob’s yer uncle.
oh dave! Everything is always sex sex sex with you! 😉
Speaking of lightbulb jokes, I had Polish tradesmen working on our place for months, and they were never late, worked their fingers to the bone, had incredible skills (such as the ability to pull plaster crown moldings and make perfect replicas of walnut baseboards, by hand) and were generally the best carpenters I have ever had the pleasure to meet. To think that Americans spent so many years cracking jokes insulting the competence of Poles!
A neighbor of mine keeps her metal work in great shape. She’s 79 & I asked her what she does to it. Turns out she puts a little bit of cooking oil w/ rinse water when she washes it once every 2 years or so. I’m going to try it next after mine is painted soon. (By the way, she is from Barbados & has a lovely lilt.)
What did they use originally? Was it the natural wrought iron with some type of oil protection? Or did they paint it? My old sewing table has a wrought iron, unpainted base and still looks great for all its 100+ years- but then again, it was never outdoors.
I think he/she should be draped over the iron fence and beat like a rug.
crescent hill- ths my last comment to you seeing as you are foaming at the mouth unreasonable.
No they weren’t.
You are an overwrought, oversensitive hysteric who probably goes through life looking for perceived insults in the most innocuous statements. I wouldn’t dignify your issue by calling it “political correctness” when all it is, is paranoid misperception. And while you trying to figure out how to have a normal conversation, get a good dictionary and a thesaurus- you obviously need them.
“Even a glossy finish will eventually mellow out. ”
Hopefully so too will some of the louder voices here. 🙂
If someone wrote that my Jamaican contractors had “that wonderful Caribbean lilt”, or somesuch, I would not see that as a reason to go over the table and punch them out, and I have Caribbean ancestry. There is no insult there, and I don’t see that Rehab gave Vinnie any, nor did Bxgrl in talking about “old world”, or “old fashioned”, which as DIBS pointed out, are both high complements towards his level of craft. I think both lalena and Crescent Hill are making mountains out of molehills, and are finding insult where there was none. This was just supposed to be a nice story about a fence being repaired. Good Lord.
bxgrl….I think it’ll “weather.” It already has to a degree and does look better. But originally my rail was painted “flat” and that looked bad.