Over the years I’ve done a lot of commission work but this piece is now my favorite that I’ve done. This customer, who I’ve done work for previously, asked me to make her a Baltic Cross like one a family member of hers has. She provided me with pictures and the dimensions she was after so I set out to tackle an imposing piece of work.
The last 3 pictures are when it was finished being forged. The rest of the images are with it 100% complete. I was asked to get the Baltic Cross powder coated to avoid it rusting. We went with a semi-gloss black for that and it came out wonderful.
The biggest challenge with this piece was the squiggly pieces you see. Metal that’s wide and thin does not bend easily or well in the direction you see. You can curl it easily, or fold it over itself, but to bend it against the width is a struggle. Then to match 4 of them so they’re as identical as possible added to that challenge.
Each piece was joined to the circle I forged (again, a tough task) using rivets. All those rivets on the face of the circle frame looks great.
Height of the Baltic Cross is 8′. Of that 2′ is used for putting it into the ground to give a final height of 6′ above.
This was not the most challenging project I’ve done in terms of technical skill. However, there were a lot of parts involved and a lot of time to get that final result. Completely worth the effort and I’m glad to have delivered to my customer something she’s wanted for years.
If custom blacksmith work interests you, then do check out my gallery of work and also feel free to reach out to me about anything you have in mind.
