The Brennock Road gates
A pair of estate gates between existing limestone piers, with hand-forged pickets, collared scrolls and a steel frame hidden inside the top rail for the automation.
- Span
- 16 ft
- Weight
- 2,140 lb
- In the shop
- 14 weeks
Five smiths. One 300 lb hammer. Gates that weigh a ton.
Blackrod forges estate gates, structural balconies and big fire features for houses across the Upper Stanner valley. Every piece is hot forged from solid bar in our shop on Ropewalk Road, then hung by the same five people who made it.
- Projects start at
- $12,000
- Estate gates, typically
- $22k to $60k
- From signed drawing to hung
- 10 to 16 weeks
4,300 lb of iron left the shop on these three trucks
We weigh every job on the way out, because the weight tells you more about a piece of ironwork than any adjective. Here are three from last year.
A balcony for an 1890s stone house
A structural balcony bolted back through two feet of fieldstone, drawn with our engineer and rated for 100 lb per square foot. The railing basket is forged, the brackets underneath are forged, the bolts are the only thing we bought.
- Projection
- 4 ft 6 in
- Weight
- 1,380 lb
- In the shop
- 11 weeks
The Meeker fire bowl
A five foot fire bowl dished from 3/8 in plate under the hammer, then pierced by hand so the fire throws a pattern across the terrace. It took a crane to set and it will outlast the terrace.
- Diameter
- 5 ft
- Weight
- 780 lb
- In the shop
- 10 weeks
Read the heat
There is no thermometer in our forge
A smith reads the temperature of steel by its color, and every color allows different work. Drag the bar from 400 to 1300 °C to see what we see, and what we can do with it at that heat.
Orange
1652 °F
Tong end on the left, working end in the fire. Colors as the smith sees them in a dim shop.
400 °C1300 °C
What we do at 850 to 999 °C
Most hand forging lives here: drawing out a taper, upsetting a bar end, punching the holes that collars and rivets pass through. A good orange heat gives a smith about a minute of work.
What goes wrong
Scale builds fast at this heat. We brush it off between blows so it is not hammered into the surface.
A hammer from 1958 and the five people who run it
The 300 lb self-contained air hammer came out of a railroad shop in 1958. We rebuilt it in 2011 and it has run most working days since. It is the reason a five person shop can forge two inch bar the way a factory would, while every picket still carries the mark of a hand.
- Striking weight
- 300 lb
- Largest bar we forge
- 2 in
- People, all on the tools
- 5
Dale Hewson
Founder and master smith
Forging since 1994. Draws every gate before anyone quotes it.
Ruth Vance
Lead smith
Runs the power hammer. Nine years at Blackrod, the steadiest hand on a heavy heat.
Tomas Brecht
Fit-up and welding
Builds the hidden frames, hinges and posts that let a ton of iron swing on one finger.
Imogen Hale
Drawings and engineering
Turns sketches into shop drawings and works with our engineer on anything structural.
Sam Whitlow
Finishing and install
Galvanizing runs, paint, and crane day. Has hung every Blackrod gate since 2013.
Forged iron costs more than fabricated. Here is how much.
A welded gate from bought-in parts costs a third of ours. Ours is drawn, forged and collared by hand from solid bar, and it is heavy enough to still be hanging in a hundred years. If that is not what you need, we will tell you at the survey.
Smallest commission
From $12,000
A single garden gate, a short run of forged railing, or a fire bowl up to about three feet.
Estate gates
$22,000 to $60,000
A pair of driveway gates with posts or pier fixings. Span, bar size, how much is hand forged and whether they are automated set where you land.
Structural balconies and large fire features
Priced from drawings
These need a survey and, for balconies, an engineer. We price them once the drawing exists, and the survey visit is free inside the valley.
10 to 16 weeks
Counted from the day you sign the drawings, not from the first phone call. Gates for spring usually need drawings signed by the end of January.
What moves the price
Span and bar size first, then how much of it is hand forged, automation, and how close a crane can get. Galvanizing and paint are always included.
From the survey visit to crane day
01 Site survey
Week 0
Dale or Imogen comes out, measures the opening or the wall, checks crane access and talks through what you want. You get a budget range within a week.
02 Drawings you sign
Weeks 1 to 3
Scaled shop drawings, and a stamped engineer drawing for anything that carries people. A 40% deposit books your place in the forge schedule.
03 Forging and fit-up
Weeks 3 to 12
Bar goes in the fire. We send photos from the shop every Friday, and you are welcome to come and watch a heavy day on the hammer.
04 Galvanizing and paint
Weeks 10 to 14
Hot-dip galvanized, then a two coat paint system in the color you chose. Interior work gets a hot beeswax finish instead.
05 Crane day
Weeks 10 to 16
The same people who forged it hang it. Gates are set, hung and adjusted in a day. Balconies take two.
Architects send us the jobs other shops turn down
I send Blackrod the jobs other fabricators turn down. The balcony on our Linden Street restoration had to hang off rubble stone, and Imogen had the engineer and the drawing sorted before I had finished the permit set.
Our gates weigh over a ton and they open with a push. We drove out to watch the pickets go through the power hammer and still talk about it.
Fourteen weeks, like they said at the survey, and the crane was gone by lunch. The Friday photos meant nobody had to chase anybody.
Send us the drawing, the photo or the napkin
Tell us what you want and where it goes. Dale reads every enquiry and calls back within two working days with a first budget range and a date for the survey.
(555) 014-1300Shop open Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm. Visits by appointment, closed-toe shoes please.