Scrollwork, Pickets and Finials

On a gate facing the sea breeze, every scroll and finial is another place for salt to sit, so the decorative parts of a Carlsbad, CA iron gate (the scrollwork, pickets and finials that the pages at carlsbad wrought iron gates inside michigan politics treat as one design) are planned for drainage and coating as much as for looks. The pattern decides how the gate reads from the street and how it holds up near the coast.

Pickets

Pickets are the vertical bars. They can be square solid bar, square tubing or round bar, and they pass through holes punched in the rails or are welded to the face. Punched through pickets look cleaner and hold better. Twisted pickets add texture.

Picket tops

A picket can end flush at the top rail, run past it with a spear point, or finish with a cap, ball or finial. Spear and finial tops discourage climbing. On a gate beside a pool or a walkway, rounded caps are kinder to hands and clothing.

Scrollwork

Scrolls are bent from flat bar into C and S shapes and welded into panels, often across the top or in a band at mid height. Hand bent scrolls are each a little different. Cast scrolls and rosettes are uniform and cheaper to make but can crack because cast iron is brittle.

Welds and joints

Every place a scroll touches a picket or rail is a weld. Each weld is ground smooth and sealed, because a gap or a pinhole traps water. Along the coast from Oceanside down to Rancho Santa Fe, those joints are where rust usually shows first.

Keeping the design workable

A gate covered in scrolls is heavy, and that weight goes onto the hinges and the latch post. A design that looks good on paper may need a heavier frame or an extra hinge. The pattern is also kept open enough that the gate can be painted inside every curve, since a spot that cannot be reached with a brush cannot be maintained.