To obtain this high finish required some intense grinding and polishing sessions. What I have not shown is the welding process, this took forever as bronze is a super conductor, heat runs through it at speed and due to the scale of the piece, it meant that we had a real heat sink on our hands. So at every stage of the welding process I experienced some pretty devastating moments. First you need to preheat the whole thing: 2 hours of blow torching.. great laugh.. then you get old Richard Elliot on the scene (with some support from John, Falcon and Slater) and you blast the joints with a few thousand volts through a TIG welder. Heating up the bronze in to small pools you feed in some bronze rod and then your work is one... or not as it happens. There is a trademark sound that occurs when your weld gos south, more of a CRICK then a crack... I got very familiar with this sound. Due to the extreme temperatures the bronze was twisting like my old man in the fifties, so it just kept pulling itself apart. This event went on some, I had my moments, but with some reassurance from the crew, I finally solved it... not always pretty.
Due to the intensity of the period there is know photographic evidence, no one likes to see a grown man crying.
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