>It’s Not Always About Woodwork.
> Where my workshop is on our farm, we always get a lot of the scrap metal lads turning up asking if we have any scrap metal. Well, on Saturday they turned up asking if we had any, we didn’t, but I noticed a cast iron fireplace on the back of their truck and asked if they would like to sell it rather than melting it down for scrap. We agreed on a price, and they unloaded it for me.
As you can see it’s quite rusty, but I think it has some nice details and has a very Art-Deco feel.
So I set about cleaning it up and removing all the rust prior to painting. After about two hours it was looking rust free and ready for the heat resistant paint I had cadged off my friend Richard the wood-burner installer.
With the rust cleaned off, I then washed the whole thing down with thinners and then flashed the thinners off. It was time for paint…
I’m pleased with the result and think it will look nice in my front room. Now I did say it’s not always about woodwork, but as you can see there is something missing and I will need to make a timber fire surround to frame it, nothing fancy because I don’t want to detract from the cast insert. My wife Katie has suggested painting the flowers for a bit of colour, but I’m not sure yet so will think about it for a bit.
Thanks for looking
>Really nice catch, Mark! Hard to believe someone tossed that out for scrap. Bet that was a lot of work to de-rust, but the end result was well worth it!
>Thanks Paul, there is quite a lot of old fireplace inserts over here. I think it took a couple of hours to get it ready for painting, so not too bad. But I did go through a couple of wire brushes.