weathervanes
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Why Weathervanes? While building a wood drift boat during my decoy carving period, I recognized the potential to apply wood-epoxy composite technology to exterior fish carvings, particularly weathervanes. As one whose carving origins began with working decoys but transitioned to fish carving, fish weathervanes are a logical utilitarian folk art conclusion - And there is something magical and fun about watching them move in the wind.
What distinguishes my carved wood-epoxy composite weathervanes from most copper vanes and their makers? The short answer is unique one-of-a-kind creations versus manufactured copies. Copper weathervane makers typically do not create their own shapes particularly if the vanes are hammered from cast molds, but rather rely on carvers to create the original shape for them to copy. Nineteenth century weathervane masters are revered for their beautiful manufactured works (J. Howard horse vanes come to mind), but credit is rarely given to the mostly unknown carvers that created their vane’s original shape or wood plugs that the vane’s iron molds were cast from. It takes skillful artisans to hammer thin sheet copper in a vane’s mold, and trim and solder the parts together, creating an original shape, scale and painting however requires completely different skills. It takes more than 30 individual steps, from drawing the pattern to the finish clear coat, and up to 3 weeks to complete one of my weathervanes. In a world where uniform mass-production and time efficiencies are celebrated and the merits of time intensive original work is often unappreciated, I offer genuinely unique fish weathervanes that combines the best of modern technology with artisanship from an earlier era. PROCESS
Weathervanes are simple mechanical devices that have two functional requirements - that the axis be placed forward of center to turn the vane into the wind’s approaching direction, and the vane be counter balanced to evenly distribute the weight over the axis. Using the most practical, durable and time tested mechanical design (a spindle, spindle tube and single independent ball bearing), I use the highest quality materials available - stainless steel for the mechanical load bearing components, and state-of-the-art wood-epoxy composite technology for the vanes. Wood-epoxy Composite Technology WHAT IS IT? First developed in the mid twentieth century, wood-epoxy composite technology combines wood with modern plastic adhesives / sealers in structural wood applications. State-of-the-Art Wood-epoxy Composite technology is so strong and durable that it has revolutionized contemporary exterior structural wood applications from bridge to boat building including my weathervanes. The technology makes it possible to create durable heirloom quality exterior fish carvings. HOW IT’S USED AND WHY IT WORKS JOINTING - The two planks that create the body, and all the fins and tail are glued with epoxy in mortise and tongue joints to take advantage of the wood grain’s direction and natural strength while also making the joints stronger than the wood itself. SEALING - The first coat of epoxy penetrates into the wood grains creating a super strong structural bond and successive coats build a substantial mil (3 total coats or approximately 6-7 mils are applied over a 12 hour period when the epoxy is still green or soft). As the epoxy cures each coat chemically links with the others and the wood grains creating a hard plastic submersible shell that is impervious to moister. Moisture is the major reason for wood failure. No moisture, no failure. AESTHETICS
There is more to creating a weathervane’s visual appeal than the vane itself. One could describe integrating the vane into the spire, globes and cardinal points (N-E-S-W) as presentation aesthetics. There is a major difference how nineteenth century vane makers designed their presentations when the American weathervane industry reached its creative and economic peak, and contemporary retailers and makers. It seems to be a reasonable assertion that the change in aesthetics from the nineteenth century master’s to contemporary presentations came with the decline and loss of the weathervane industry in the early to mid twentieth century, and replaced a generation later by retailers that do not make weathervanes but sell imported copies from an earlier era. I can only speculate on why the change occurred but the contemporary arrangement of display components and vane (and cupolas) seems to favor a retailer’s ground based perspective rather than roof top installations. While a show-floor based aesthetic is appealing up close, when viewed on distant roof tops often substantially shrinks into busy presentations. Nineteenth century design consciously plans an installation for its structure and is meant to be viewed from a distance. It scales the components to the vane, has open spaces that optically enlarges the overall presentation, and draws the eye to linger over details. When you purchase one of my weathervanes, you are also purchasing an aesthetic. I design my vanes and their presentation with a nod to the nineteenth century masters. 19th Century and Contemporary Weathervane Aesthetics
SIZING A WEATHERVANE
Contemporary weathervane makers and retailers typically sell their vanes based on an all-encompassing sizing formula of 1" of vane per foot of roofline. While it is a convenient way to sell vanes, the formula does not take into account the height and scale of a structure - both of which often have little to do with the number of feet in a roofline. The usual result is an undersized weathervane that in the extreme can instead of drawing and maintaining one's eye be obscure and busy to the point of distraction. Perhaps the most important considerations when sizing a vane are the distance from which the vane will typically be viewed, its scale to the structure, and the vane's expected viewing impact. Using footprints from my prior and current Maine shops as examples, my prior shop was a 24' x 30' two and a half car salt box with a roofline height of about 20'. With the additional height of a 5' cupola and 2' of spire a 36" vane was appropriate, and anything larger would have been out of scale due to the cupola's size, the main structure's height, and the relatively short viewing distances. Conversely a smaller 30" vane would have worked but would not have had the same visual impact. My current shop is a 25' x 25' Victorian carriage house with a roof height of about 28'. With the additional 8' of cupola and 3' of spire a 48" vane is appropriate and anything smaller would be difficult to appreciate from typical viewing distances and have significantly less visual impact. Despite the smaller footprint, the higher roofline and large cupola requires a substantially larger vane size than what the generic formula of 25" - 30" would call for in order to appreciate the vane, and be scaled appropriately to the structure. Which is to say, sizing a weathervane is really best done on a case-by-case basis.
Spraying the base paint coat over the cured and wet-sanded marine epoxy moisture barrier on a 48” steelhead trout weathervane. Painting and a highly durable 2-part Urethane high-gloss clear-coat with U.V. inhibitors finishes the vane. Maine 19th century carriage house loft. (Photo: Edwin Martin) While I offer two different vane sizes to meet many common viewing distances, sizing a vane for projects beyond the two sizes is a simple process. Contact me if you have questions about sizing a weathervane. I’ll be happy to discuss them with you and what might be an appropriate size vane for your project.
REFERENCES AND READING
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