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.
beautifully expressed Crescent Hill. wasder, what if the original poster didn’t realize he was being offensive by parodying an italian accent. then we would have to pity his insensitivity and lack of awareness. 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. “My” architect, “I had Vinnie do such and such.” Savor your good fortune.
It’s a little over the top to associate that with a reference to the mafia.
Posted by: bxgrl at September 16, 2009 12:19 PM
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That remark has to be one of the most ridiculous things I have read in a while, the innuendo of “cash only” is not intended to reference criminality but , in my opinion to reference the tradesmen wanting to hide something perhaps via taxes. Please take your mind out of the gutter and recognize that the poster is perhaps unintentionally ridiculing this man. I think you are the one who is quite ” the character”, not Vinnie.
Great information here!
And honestly- I don’t see how anything was insulting. If anything it seemed more an affectionate nod to Vinny- who sounds like quite a character and cash only is old-fashioned (which sounds like Vinny again.)He seems to be one of those old world craftsmen. It’s a little over the top to associate that with a reference to the mafia.
lalena–why do you assume that there was a derisive intent?
Nice job on a worthwhile project, however I think the archaic references to the craftman’s ethnicity as well as the underlying innuendo that he accepts cash only are unfortunate and tired. I wonder if such lingual parody would be so casually heaped on other foreign born tradesmen, laborers or cooks discussed on this site from time to time.
so was Albert Einstein’s. The point is, Vinnie apparently does excellent work. Making “fun” of his accent, to me, seems to diminish him. Is this 2009? I thought we as a society were way beyond making fun of accents, infirmities, etc. Common decency. Smacks of lightbulb jokes.
But Vinnie really does talk like that. The accent is so thick, it’s verging on incomprehensible.
What a lovely result. It goes to show that with a little research it is possible to find the best resources for a wonderful project.
Wonderful story! Great looking results! Thanks for sharing this!