Introduction: Happy St. Patricks Day! - Old Style Irish Banner for Flanagan's Irish Pub Dunedin, Fl

By ZH Fabrications
About: My name is Zack, I'm a full time craftsman. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I love full time--turning ideas into reality. I specialize in commissioned projects, including furniture, sculpture, …

So this has got to be one of my favorite builds to date, an old school Irish pub banner for Flanagan's pub for the 2017 St. Patrick's day block party.

If you have 7:00 to spare I recommend watching the video. There were a lot of techniques and skills that I had no previous experience with (forging scrolls, leaves, and vines), but I'm quite satisfied with the results.

Here is a pretty comprehensive list of the tools I used for the project:


Whitlox Homestead Wood Forge - http://amzn.to/2mq81OS

Lincoln Electric 140C Mig welder - http://amzn.to/2fhWbGd

Dewalt 4 1/2 Angle Grinder - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt Flexvolt Angle Grinder - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt DW862 Cold Saw - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt XR 20V Drill - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt 20V Circular saw - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Iwata Eclipse HP-CS(Airbrush) - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Wiss Aviation snips - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Titebond ii Wood glue - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Fastcap Glue Bot - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Finishes used:

General Finishes Antique Walnut gel stain - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Sculpt Nouveau Black Magic Patina - http://bit.ly/2nltsor
Sculpt Nouveau Copper Plate Patina - http://bit.ly/2mDTdjj

Sculpt Nouveau Solvent Dyes (Airbrush) - http://bit.ly/2mXQEbe

Lacuqer clear coat - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Step 1: Pallet Wood

The first step was to hijack an abandoned pallet I found by a dumpster. I've found that a Sawzall is hands down the best way to disassemble these guys.

Tools used:
Dewalt 20V Sawzall - http://amzn.to/2mMyBCO

Step 2: Edge Jointing the Boards

Since pallet wood is warpy & wobbly, I wanted to clean up and straighten the edges before glue-up.The faces are still cupped, but it doesn't matter as I'm going for an old distressed vibe.

For this I used a couple of hand planes--an aggressively beveled #4 to hog off the nastyness, and a #6 to finish it off

Step 3: Gluing Up the Panel

This picture is exactly what it looks like, I'm glueing up the boards... Titebond II is my general go-to. And if you've never used a "glue bot" before, it's a solid $8.00 investment that makes applying glue foolproof.


Tools used:

Titebond ii Wood glue - http://amzn.to/2mxj5cQ
Fastcap Glue Bot - http://amzn.to/2mMEboO

Step 4: Paint the Flag

I've found that contrary to intuition white paint is actually the most opaque, so I always apply it last.

I haven't really experimented with other paints for this type of work as I find that latex paint distresses very well.

Step 5: Distressing the Flag

This is my go-to distressing technique, after the paint dries I'll hit everything with a random orbital sander until there is some bare wood exposed.

Tools used:
Makita Random orbital sander - http://amzn.to/2m4nN5D

Step 6: Staining

Then I'll wipe everything down with a Walnut stain, for this I'm using an Antique Walnut gel stain from General Finishes.

General Finishes Antique Walnut Gel Stain - http://amzn.to/2mxoMYv

Step 7: Finished Flag

In the video you can see me using an old chain to batter the sign a bit. This is the finished flag.

Step 8: Drawing Out the Scrollwork

Here you can see me drawing out the desired shape of the scrolls I'm about to forge.

Step 9: Heating Up the Flat Stock

I've been using this wood fired forge with great success, it's neat as I can pretty much just burn all of my scrap & cutoffs to heat up material. For the scrolls I'm using 1/8"x2" flat stock.

Tools used:
Whitlox Homestead Wood Forge - http://amzn.to/2mq81OS

Step 10: More Scrolling

This was my first time doing scrollwork of this size, the larger the scroll is the trickier it is, I had to tweak this one a few times to get it right. It's strange at how good the human eye is at spotting anomalies in circles, while we are so terrible at drawing/forming them.

Step 11: Weather/rust Proofing

Applying an old school blacksmithing formula of Boiled Linseed oil, Turpentine, and Beeswax.

Step 12: The Mounting Plate

Next it was time to start on the hanger/wall mount. I used 1/4" steel plate, and drilled 8 3/8" holes for concrete anchors. BTW if you've never used the spongy looking quick strip discs before, they are absolutely incredible for removing mill-scale.

Tools used:

Dewalt Flexvolt Angle Grinder - http://amzn.to/2lquDSZ

Step 13: Assembly

Welding the bar and scrolls to the mounting plate. I did two passes around the joint.

Tools used:
Lincoln Electric 140C Mig welder - http://amzn.to/2fhWbGd

Step 14: Flag Mounts

This is one of the two hooks that will be used to hang the flag, for the parts that I couldn't bring to the forge I used an oxy-acetylene torch. Something about heating up metal and bending it is incredibly satisfying.

Step 15: Vinework

Starting the vine-work. All the vines started out as 1/4" steel rod. I've actually found that just by drawing out a taper, a fairly realistic branch/vine texture can be achieved naturally.

Step 16: More Vinework

Heat, bend, repeat. This part is so much fun!

Step 17: Forged Leaves

Next I forged 10 leaves to accentuate the vines, the process is demonstrated in the video if you are curious. This was also the first time I'd ever forged leaves, each one was a little better than the last.

Step 18: Attaching the Leaves

Welding on the leaves, I feel like this step really brought the vines to life.

Tools used:
Lincoln Electric 140C Mig welder - http://amzn.to/2fhWbGd

Step 19: Shamrocks and Clovers

And now for some clovers and shamrocks. These were cut out from 20 gauge cold rolled sheet steel and textured with a cross peen. I also made a custom anvil hardy to get the crease and bend.

Tools used:
Mason hammer, Cross pein hammer, ball pein hammer,
Wiss Aviation snips - http://amzn.to/2mSxCm7

Step 20: Airbrushing

I used both a green and a black solvent dye from Sculpt Nouveau to color the shamrocks and clovers.

Tools used:
Iwata Eclipse HP-CS(Airbrush) - http://amzn.to/2nqTYJB

Sculpt Nouvea Solvent Dyes - http://bit.ly/2mXQEbe

Step 21: Clear Coating

Here I'm blasting the shamrocks and clovers with a protective clear coat of lacquer.

Product used:
Lacuqer clear coat - http://amzn.to/2mDXF1G

Step 22: Finished and Installed

Happy St. Patricks Day!

The flag was installed with 8 concrete anchors

Step 23: Sláinte!

Thank you for checking out this Instructable! If you'd like to see more projects from me, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel ZH Fabrications and check out my website www.zhfabrications.com.

And again, here is a list of the tools used in the process:

Whitlox Homestead Wood Forge - http://amzn.to/2mq81OS

Lincoln Electric 140C Mig welder - http://amzn.to/2fhWbGd

Dewalt 4 1/2 Angle Grinder - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt Flexvolt Angle Grinder - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt DW862 Cold Saw - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt XR 20V Drill - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Dewalt 20V Circular saw - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Iwata Eclipse HP-CS(Airbrush) - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Wiss Aviation snips - http://amzn.to/2ejTkbd

Titebond ii Wood glue - http://amzn.to/2mxj5cQ

Fastcap Glue Bot - http://amzn.to/2mMEboO

Finishes used:

General Finishes Antique Walnut gel stain - http://amzn.to/2gC75qh

Sculpt Nouveau Black Magic Patina - http://bit.ly/2nltsor

Sculpt Nouveau Copper Plate Patina - http://bit.ly/2mDTdjj

Sculpt Nouveau Solvent Dyes (Airbrush) - http://bit.ly/2mXQEbe

Lacuqer clear coat - http://amzn.to/2gC75qh

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Thanks agian,

Zack