More on Rust

Building these shelves for William Stout's new store on Solano required quite a bit of time in the grinding room at the Crucible.  We are truly living our mission statement of using recycled materials whenever possible.  But man, what a job it is to get these old pieces of steel looking bright again.  Gettin' there:

These posts were previously part of the last installation at the old SFMOMA near Civic Center, before the move to 3rd Street in 1995.  Now they announce William Stout's new architecture and design bookstore on Solano Ave in Albany, which opened in September. We are happy to have some pieces in such a fine establishment!

This last photo was taken on install day.  They look better with books, go check them out in person and support your local publisher/bookstore.

New Bench for the Crucible!

We love our chances to collaborate with other artists at just fine, and our latest collaboration is complete. Danny Garcia, a longtime volunteer at The Crucible who also runs the awesome estate sales business called old hat did the metalworking for this bench and I (Matt) did the woodworking. It is made from square tube steel with a 'presto black' patina, and reclaimed Doug Fir that was from Crucible founder Michael Sturtz' cellar of his house in Alameda. The boards are in the same plane as the metal to try and highlight the metal frame, which too often gets covered by the wood.

The bench rotates on a single caster so the lift gate that is behind the bench is still usable - pretty clever we think.

Rump Stumplings

Another project in the books! (well, they aren't sold yet but that's where YOU can help us)

We replaced the flat bar in the front & back with round tube, we think it softens the angles a bit and gives each piece more character.  The set will be on display and for sale this weekend at the Crucible's Open House along with lots of other nice work.

Thanks for looking and please spread the word.   -- jfdb

Steel Blackening Trials / Rust Appreciation

Who knew it would be so hard to turn steel black?  So many choices, so many chemicals, so many trials:  Gun Blue, Presto Black, Presto Black Gel, Slate Black...all recommended by various folks, all disappointed us in one way or another.  Some gave the steel a rainbow trout sheen, which was cool but not what we were seeking.  Other patinas yielded various shades of brown/silver/black.  All of them highlighted the welds which is what we are trying to blend in the first place.  Without going to the trouble and expense of powder-coating, how does a fabricator get a nice even black on his steel projects?  We have settled on the Presto Black Gel after wire-wheeling the whole thing; sand-blasting the metal actually seems to inhibit the reaction, which surprised me.  Here are photos of two sample pieces before the trials (top image is wire-wheeled and sand-blasted, the second is just wire-wheeled):

The goal is to blend in the weld with the rest of the steel, which has a lot of beautiful texture.  To be honest if it were up to me I would leave the bases outside in the rain for a few weeks and let it rust, then clear coat it.  But the trend these days is for steel fixtures with that blackened, gun metal look.

Our trials have been inconclusive over the past week so we will keep trying today in advance of putting the stools together for the Crucible's art show at the Open House this Saturday.  Here are the same pieces after our patina trials:

I hereby propose a worldwide "rust appreciation" movement WHEREBY we proclaim that rust is beautiful and WHEREBY we realize rust never sleeps and WHEREBY we don't want our fabricators using gross chemical treatments in an attempt to vainly inhibit rust, which is beautiful and never sleeps.

Thank you for reading and we hope to see you at the Crucible on Saturday checking out our stools--