In yet another attempt to get something done while we wait for the snow to melt and for the temperature rise, we started another project. Another project!!!! Yes, another project.
Let me catch you up on the status of our already started projects.
Shutter project.... Today I primed twice, both front and back of the shutters that will go on the front windows of the library. That would be the bank of three windows on the right side of the photo below. It is suppose to rain all day tomorrow but nice on Wednesday so I will prime and paint more shutters on Wednesday and Thursday.
Table saw project...I have ordered several parts and they should arrive sometime this week. We are at a full stop on this project until it warms up enough to spray paint the housing of the saw. Once the housing is painted we can bolt the saw to the wooden base and then reassemble.
The new project is to make more faux wrought iron straps like the authentic ones on the front door. I have search high and low for more vintage wrought iron straps in this design but have not found any. The straps I did find were over $200 a pair and of a different design. For this next project, I need 7 straps, 4 for the vintage French doors and 3 for the barn loft door.
We made faux wrought iron straps for the garden shed doors and so far no one has suspected that they are anything but original. Those that I have told of their fakeyness, didn't believe me, even after close inspection. The photo below is of those faux wrought iron straps.
As a bonus....these straps cost $0.00. The straps are made out of Hardy Board clapboards. My son's neighbor resided his house and put all his scrap pieces out to the curb on trash day. We happen to visit on that day and I had R bring home the longest pieces. He, of course asked "for what?" and I said "I'll think of something."
There is only 4 long pieces left in our Hardy board siding stash. We can make 2 straps per piece so that leaves us with only 1 spare, so we can only break one piece.
I traced an original wrought iron strap with pencil onto the Hardy board on the rougher of the two sides. Now comes the slow and tedious part.....cutting it. We have tried everything we can think of to cut it and we get the best results using a saber/jig* saw with a carbon steel 12 teeth per inch blade. The 8 teeth per inch is too coarse and causes the board to break off in chunks. The carbon steel blades seem to last longer.
*FYI....jig saw and saber saw are terms that are used interchangeably. I, also found reference to jig saw being referred to a saw with a finer tooth blade and the term, saber saw used when the saw uses a rough cut blade. So I think it is 6 of one and 1/2 dozen of the other.
R was able to cut out just one strap today. It is a slow, tedious job. Tomorrow while he cuts out a second strap, I will work on putting the edge detail on the first strap. In the photo below you can see the scalloped edge. I use a pneumatic pencil grinder with a barrel bit to achieve this same look.
The trick to making this faux strap look real is to randomly scallop the edge. You want the scallops to overlap and occasionally skip a section. Some scallops are deeper and some are shallower. I usually make a couple of passes around the entire edge before I am satisfied.
Cutting cement board puts a lot of dust into the air so use protection. R uses a dust mask and googles.
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