Split crosses for a church auction

The church I belong to had an auction recently to raise funds for its outreach program. This year I donated three plaque mounted split crosses. Split crosses are made by making two intersecting cuts in a length of metal and opening those cuts up in a specific way creating a cross with a diamond shape in the middle. They look really nice when done well and I’ve made a few of them in the past so I know how they’ll turn out.

I made these particular crosses out of some discarded railroad spikes. I chose the spikes because I had them in my stock inventory and the dimensions were decent. I also like the symbolism of turning spikes into crosses to help raise money for my church. I bought the bare plaques from Michaels Craft’s because I wanted the rough, hand-forged look of the crosses to work with the proper, cleanly milled edges of the commercial plaques to show a union of thrift and wealth.

I also took the time to record the process of making these plaques. I recorded footage of the entire process for one specific plaque, edited it and put it on a flash drive to be auctioned off with that specific cross. I also uploaded a copy to my YouTube channel. You can watch it below.



I’m pretty happy with how they came out and I hope they do well at the auction.

Ctrl-Alt-Dlt...Life Reboot

This is the year of change for me. I've never been someone to try to map out my future with any real degree of determination. I have a things I'd like to see happen and if they get put into motion I try to have them play out as beneficial as possible. My experience with this silly journey called life has taught me that, at best, you have to be adaptable to the circumstances that are presented to you.

By the end of this year, through a not uninteresting sequence of events, I will be able to say that I have, changed jobs after 22 years, bought my first house, got baptized and married. The first two of these items I did within days of each other. Any one of these are fairly significant life changes and all but one of them were no where near being on my radar even 8 months ago.

But life, as I seem to live it, demands adaptability.

With all of this going on I haven't been able to put hammer to steel in my forge for many months. Today I had a small window of time so I chased out some mice and a few spiders and fired up the forge. A successful session in the forge is usually diametrically opposite to living my life. I like to know what I'm making, what tools I'll need, how long I'm dedicating to each project and as much else about that time as possible in order to be a economic with that time as possible. I still need to adapt to situations as they arise but I'm usually quite focused. Sessions like today are much more day-dreamy and if I get anything to come out, I'm pretty happy. I was able to get a split cross or a Frederick's cross done but it was a hastily cut with a cut-off wheel rather than a band saw or hacksaw and rather sloppy job. Still, it looks alright and the sense of accomplishment was nice.

I do have some other things I was to do in the near future including a couple videos but we will see how that plays out in the coming weeks.