Restoring Weathervanes

Recently we've had a couple of enquiries about restoring old weathervanes, so thought I would do a blog post about a few relevant projects.
Though much of what we do has contemporary feel to it, in part because of the precision of modern laser technology, we're both massively inspired by art and architecture of the past, particularly the Victorian era. So we actually really love bringing something old back to life, whether that be starting from scratch producing a replicar, or actually physically restoring an old piece of ironwork. It produces a different set of challenges to overcome and is interesting to learn about the processes of the past.

The images below show a very rusty weathervane sail that was brought to us to be re created. Our customer thought it was about 40 or 50 years old, and as he was fond of the design, wanted us to produce something close to the original. I made the scrolls out of square bar on the forge rather than flat bar bent cold, so it is a bit chunkier than before, and have added a little detail distinctive of the Black Fox style in the form of ferns, which would not have been possible without modern laser cutting. Otherwise though we have kept the design true to the original.

The next image shows a Cornish sign we re created. It was in the deeds of the house that this sign must remain, and that it if replaced it must be kept exactly the same. We re created the laser cut design, which was actually very difficult to make out due to the layers of paint and rust holes! We also reproduced the forgework around the border.

The next image shows me re gilding a church finial, possibly the most fiddly job we have ever done!