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PECAN SOUTH MAGAZINE Vol
46, No. 4, June 2013
Retirement hobby fires
up R.G. Box
Blacksmith artist R.G. Box of Lubbock,
Texas, is pondering the possibility of
creating a pecan tree. Considering the
fact that he has already made a 6-foot
roadrunner, an entire tree is certainly
within the realm of possibility and his
capability. But to date, his pecan work
in the forge has been smaller projects
like limbs and leaves and nuts in
various ornamental projects, such as the
sculpture pictured here.
Box’s website, PecanderosaForge.com,
showcases some of his work, which is a
hobby he undertook about a dozen years
ago upon retirement from the oilfield
and heavy equipment manufacturing
industries. He became interested in
blacksmithing and attended the Forgery
School of Blacksmithing in Tijeras, New
Mexico.
Today, the 78-year-old’s own shop is
fully outfitted including a brick
coal-burning forge that he built
himself. Box has been featured in
several publications and on Texas
Country Reporter television show.
Livestock Weekly newspaper of San
Angelo, Texas, reported the following
about Box’s enterprise:
“There is a factory-made coal forge,
plus a huge brick coal-burning forge
that Box built, with an antique bellows
attached. He uses a propane forge often
for certain projects. The gas forge is
nice, he said, because it won’t burn up
his projects when he forgets and leaves
something in the forge too long.
“He found and purchased 2 trip hammers,
a 25-pound and a 50-pound, one made in
1910 and the other in 1922. A treadle
hammer sits a few feet away from the big
trip hammers.
“In addition to all the traditional
blacksmith tools, Box uses some modern
equipment and power tools. It’s not
exactly the old-time blacksmith style,
he admitted, but the old blacksmiths
didn’t use those tools only because they
didn’t have them.
“His wife gets upset about the amount of
time he spends in the shop. Box is
usually in the shop seven days a week.
“All of Box’s blacksmith work is in the
ornamental style. He spends a lot of
time on each project, and his work isn’t
cheap. Everything is done on custom
order these days.”
The gallery on his website shows
fireplace screens, beds, door latches,
boot stands, plant sculptures, plaques,
doors, tables, and more ornamental work.
The photo above shows
each pecan leaf, with its 13 leaflets,
all of which are made individually.
Livestock Weekly’s report on Box, from
February 2013, also included the
following comments on the pecan limb
sculpture that he was making at the
time:
“A Texas pecan, Box explained, has 13
leaflets on each leaf. This piece had a
limb with 3 leaves, so 39 leaflets, plus
a pecan cluster. That makes for a lot of
forging.
“He demonstrated the leaflet and stem
forging, which he knocked out with ease.
Blacksmith artist R.G.
Box created the metal sculpture of pecan
limb and nut cluster, above,
as a piece to sit on a bookshelf or
table.
“He then moved to building the curved
limb, which was complicated. Box took a
piece of one and a quarter inch pipe and
welded a cap on one end. He then filled
it with sand and capped the other end.
He hoped the sand would keep the pipe
from kinking as he curved it.
“While the pipe was heating, Box said
this was only the second time
he had bent pipe for a pecan limb. The
other piece was longer, for a fireplace,
but this one was only about a foot long.
He didn’t know how well it would work.
“When the pipe was heated, Box stuck it
in a post vise and hit it. It bent, but
it also kinked. Box studied it and
gently cussed it.
"I can fix that," he decided. "I’m not
sure how, but I can fix that."
“Box went ahead and curved the pipe
limb, putting a nice curve in it along
with several more kinks. He
pulled it out of the vise with his tongs
and began hammering it, gentle blows
along the edges of the kinks.
“The hammering worked, almost completely
removing the kinks. Once the bark is
added, he said, the kinks won’t be seen.
He makes the tree bark with an arc
welder.
“Box is humble about his work, claiming
anything that could be molded out of
clay can also be made from steel. It
keeps him busy and he enjoys it, which
was the point of the whole deal.” I |