Not so long ago, I decided to forge a steel rose for my mom. I imagined creating an elegant, small, not heavy rose with cute rose petals. It was my second attempt to make a rose more realistic and alive.
How to hand forge steel rose
Materials you will need:
- 1 mm steel sheet
- 6 mm black mild steel round bar
Tools you will need:
- Plasma cutter
- Oxy/Acetylene torch
- MIG welder
- An angle grinder
- Ball peen hammer, cross peen hammer, and club hammer
- Flat chisel (small)
- Long nose plier and flat plier
- Steel brush
- And a little bit of your heart 🙂
In the first step, I cut the paper stencils to make petals, sepals, and rose leaves. The paper stencils below show the size, quantity, and shape of the rose petals and the size and shape of the rose leaves for the stem.
I used a plasma cutting machine to cut a 1 mm steel sheet, which helped me cut fast and smoothly on the cutting lines. I cut 3 pieces of shape no. 1 (7 cm diameter) and 1 piece of shape no. 2 (6 cm diameter) to make blossom petals, 1 piece of shape no. 3 to make sepals and 1 piece of shape no. 4 to make the leaf for the rose.
Using an oxy/acetylene torch and a cross-peen hammer, I flattened blossom petals and rose leaves from both sides with a cross peen hammer going from the center of each petal to the sides to get more realistic marks. Then I used a flat chisel to mark the central lines of each petal (shape no. 1 and no. 2) and sepal (shape no. 3). The rose blossom petals and sepals (shape no. 1, no. 2 and no. 3) should have a cup shape before attaching them to the stem.
I flattened the stem of the rose to give a shape and prepared to assemble the petals using an MIG welding machine. The next step was to assemble the blossom. I started with 1 piece of shape no. 3 (sepals), then added 3 pieces of shape no. 1 and 1 piece of shape no. 2. Using an oxy/acetylene torch, and a long nose plier, I formed the blossom petals into one piece. I started forming petals from the middle: first, I formed shape no. 2 and then continued with shape no. 1, etc., until I was happy with the blossom’s shape.
The last part of the rose – rose leaf. I flattened the leaf from both sides and rounded the stems the best I could. Then, I attached it to the rose stem with a MIG welding machine. Finally, I painted the whole rose with a clear coat to prevent rusting.
It took me about ten hours to make the rose, and I am quite happy with the result.
