Materials & Care

Materials

Paul has honed his skills using mild steel. He has developed a hand crafted process, manipulating the steel, cutting, bending and welding, cold forming to make steel look organic. His current workshop tools and equipment are set up to use steel, primarily mild steel but also weathering steels like corten.

Galvanised finish

We protect our steel sculptures from rusting outdoors by hot dip galvanising. This chemically bonds a layer of zinc to the steel at very high temperatures in order to prevent the steel making contact with the air and moisture outdoors. We take finished steel sculptures from our workshop to a galvanising tank offsite and then return them to our workshop, zinc coated, for the final in-house chemical finishings.

Zinc patina

We create a zinc patina that is a light chalky grey in colour. It stands out beautifully against the organic greens and browns of the landscape. Perfect for outdoors, there is then no additional care or maintenance required.

Natural Rust finishes

Mild Steel

Mild steel oxidises in air and moisture, or ‘rusts’, continuously shedding thin layers. The speed of this shedding depends on the conditions in the environment. Initially orange, the rust will turn to a deep brown colour in weeks. If the gauge of steel is thick enough to withstand thinning and that is safe in your environment, you can request your sculpture in a rusted mild steel.

Weathering Steel

Alternatively weathering steel (like corten) has self limiting properties to halt corrosion after the first sacrificial layers are shed. Weathering steel rusting also goes through an orange to deep brown cycle, ending up as a deep brown finish over time. It takes several weeks or months for the sacrificial layers to release depending on the weather conditions at the time.