New and Repaired Fence Sections from OK Foundry and Custom Ornamental Iron
This gallery shows the architectural iron renovation and new fence installation at the Virginia State Capitol. Custom Ornamental Iron rebuilt and expanded sections of the fencing surrounding the Virginia State Capitol square using reproduction castings from OK Foundry.
Patterns for this project were built at OK Foundry from pieces of the original fence. While the reproduction is authentic, our pattern makers smoothed out the heavy pitting from rust found on the original pieces.
Original Fence Sections
The picket spear tips and fence post crowns were damaged when union troops occupied Richmond during the American Civil War. Union soldiers would break the spear tips with the but of their rifles. Large sections of the fence surrounding the Virginia State Capitol needed restoration to recapture the grandeur of the original cast iron fence design.
Original cast iron crown and pickets.
Original cast iron picket spears with broken tips.
Original cast iron fence post crown with broken tips.
Patterns from Fence Originals
The patterns for the fence finials and the fence column crown are shown below. The finials were cast on our green sand molding line and the fence columns were cast using our no-bake sand process.
No-bake pattern for cast iron crown mold.
No-bake core box for cast iron crown cores.
Green sand matchplate pattern for cast iron spear.
Green Sand Molding Cast Iron Spears
Jolt squeeze molding setup for cast iron spear.
Matchplate pattern setup for green sand molding.
Filling mold flask with green sand before ramming.
Completed drag half of mold in flask.
Completed cope half of mold in flask.
Sand impression in cope half of mold for spear casting.
Completed green sand mold in snap flask.
Completed green sand mold with flask removed.
Finished cast iron spear reproduction.
New Fence Sections
