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.
was not “looking” for offense. comment in the original post was offensive. Daveinbedstuy, no, we can’t just stick to the ironwork. When ugliness of expression is attached to beauty of objects there is a fundamental problem. Would anyone out there think it was cute if any of your relatives were portrayed in caricature? Think about it.
C’mon! This is Brownstoner not PSP.
you seem to be suffering a case of oversensitivity. No need to insult- unless you like being this immature
Posted by: bxgrl at September 16, 2009 12:35 PM
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Hardly, your 12:19 remark was absurd. I exposed it to be so. You are insulted. This was not my intent. You labeled the man ” Old World” “Old Fashioned” “A Character”, but you evidence yourself to be all of these.
Rehab, the guys doing the actual work were Latin, right. The accents on the jobsite would be slightly different. Non?? Si?? 🙂
Discuss.
OP, here. Apologies to anyone offended by my accurate depiction of Vinnie’s wonderful Italian accent, but that’s the way he speaks. I have only affection for him. And, while he does do great work, you definitely have to “spend-a the money.” Ethnic character makes NYC great–I mean to celebrate it, not denigrate.
Let’s stick to the iron work people.
“I would think the joy of being able to live in a wonderful home should reflect out into the community with a sense of gratitude, not entitlement.”
Well on this we agree. I just think maybe that you were looking for offense where none was intended. However I will gladly accept the fact that this is a fine line where everyone has a different level of tolerance and a different sense of what crosses the line.
What gutter? I think this is much ado about nothing, and takes away from the fact that Vinnie is a fine ironworker, who is well recommended by many here, and that the OP shared a good story, as well as gave and received a couple of good sources for custom iron pieces, something that I consider good things to know about.
Sheesh, let’s just drop it, ok?
Crescent Hill- I hardly think my mind is in the gutter and you seem to be suffering a case of oversensitivity. No need to insult- unless you like being this immature. And my ssumption was to that because you made reference to the OP supposedly making fun of Vinnie’s Italian accent. Now you can crawl back under your rock.