Author: Mark Elliott

Remembrance Day 2016 will have a new tribute to the brave men who lost their lives fighting for their country.

‘The Tunstead Oak Tree’ sculpture has been made to honour the 84 employees at Tarmacs lime quarry works in Tunstead Buxton who served and fell during World War 1 and 2. The sculpture has been produced by Paul Widdows at Wharncliffe Forge  has taken over months to complete and is made up of 485 separate components.

Blacksmith sculptor Paul has spent hours forging the tree trunk, branches and leaves. The metal oak tree stands over 6 foot tall and has 84 leaves on the tree for each of the men who worked at the Tunstead quarry and lost their lives in World War 1 and 2. The leaves will have a round enamel disc bearing the name of the every fallen employee, which have been produced by Sheffield company House of Logos. The discs have been stamped out from metal, polished, then coloured with an Autumn brown enamel. They are polished one final time, before being printed with the name of a fallen employee.

The Tunstead Oak Tree sculpture will be dedicated on the 11th of November 2016 where employees, dignitaries, representatives from the British Legion and people from the Buxton community will be in attendance.

The Tunstead Oak Sculpture will take pride of place in Tarmacs offices situated in the front reception lounge for all to see. A fitting Remembrance Day tribute to the brave men from Buxton who lost their lives on the battlefields of World War 1 and World War 2.

It is not the first time the Tarmac Tunstead site has produced a memorial, as earlier in the year they unveiled a metal poppy sculpture in memory of the 15 men who worked at the Buxton Lime Firm and laid down their lives during the Battle of the Somme. Tarmac apprentices Liam Garner, Jack Nuttall and George Woodward were instrumental in the production of the Remembrance Day sculpture which takes centre stage in the main Tarmac HQ building.

Established in 2002, Revo is a world leader in Audi, VW, Skoda, SEAT and Ford group vehicle performance ECU software and hardware products. The company’s reach is truly global, with distribution in over 40 countries through an authorised network of over 400 authorised dealers and performance centres.

Revo approached us after being impressed by the quality of items we manufactured for Matt Neal at Team Dynamics. They wanted us to manufacture custom metal plaques which would be adhered to customers cars they had tuned. Their idea was to offer badge sets consisting of rear badges, wing badges and additional stage badges so their customers could proudly display the level of tune their car is running. They also wanted a keyring producing in the same style and finish to compliment the badge sets.

The Revo badges are solid metal with a chrome plated surface, leaving a shiny but durable finish. This is essential when you consider the badges are exposed to a wide variety of adverse weather conditions. The black lettering and red accents are filled with hard enamel and polished, ensuring a nice even finish to the surface. They come complete with 3M self-adhesive foam strips on the rear, ensuring they stick to the contours of every car.

The exterior vehicle badges and keyrings marked the start of an exciting working relationship with Revo. Since then we have produced stainless steel plaques which are adhered to their induction kits and are currently producing Golf GTI style side badges with a twist!

Revo are a great company to work with, as they continue to develop new products and come to us with exciting ideas/briefs. They are very precise and have a great eye for detail, pushing us to deliver items of real quality.

With the help of social media, it’s incredible to see badges we have manufactured being proudly displayed on cars all over the world.

VW Festival sees Harewood House host a varied celebration of Volkswagen vehicles through the ages. The festival has gone from strength to strength and this year will mark the 11th edition in the shows history. Obviously as the name suggests, the main focus will be on the cars and visitors can wander the grounds of the 18th-century manor and observe a comprehensive display. Vehicles include campervans, Karmann Ghia’s and old Beetle’s alongside many of VW’s newer models which extends to the whole VAG group.

Every year the main focus of the show is the ‘show and shine’. This is for attendants who’s car has been preselected to be shown on the show grounds and makes for a great selection of truly jaw dropping vehicles to gaze upon. Whether it’s standard cars or modified cars, there is always a great variety of vehicles on show which makes for an exciting competition. The judging criteria for vehicles can be found below and each winner receives car detailing gear, a trophy and a special gold keyring made by House of Logos:

– Best in Show
– 2nd place
– 3rd place
– Runners up (x7)
– Highly Commended (x2)
– Best Club Stand

That being said, it’s not just about the cars! VW Festival has something to cater for all ages and interests so the whole family can enjoy the whole, whatever their preference on cars. The two large marquees play host to live bands on the Friday and Saturday evenings. One for the small kids and one for the ‘larger kids’. Other activities/entertainment at this years festival include circus performances, stunt displays and animal section which includes everybody’s favourite animal, penguins! Attendants are also encouraged to dress up for the VW Festival and this year is no exception! This years theme is the circus and visitors are encouraged to break out their best gear and dress yourself, your car and your club stand to impress!

VW Festival also has very close relationships to local charities. Every year a raffle is held in aid of a specially selected charity and this year the selected charity is Cash for Kids. The main prize in this raffle is a 1967 VW Beetle restored by Herbie Hospital. Last year the raffle raised over £18,000 for charity.

All our precious metal items are tailor made allowing us to offer a variety of products in precious metals such as 9ct, 18ct gold and sterling silver. Popular items include but are not limited to lapel pins, stick pins, keyrings and cufflinks. This means your company logo or product can be turned into a prestigious piece of jewellery that will be treasured by the recipient and worn with pride. Below we have listed all the steps involved.

First we make a prototype metal model by hand. Usually this is done by sculpting a piece of wax into the desired shape, pattern or logo, which is then cast in metal. This is called the master (the prototype). The master is then polished and finished using small burrs, files and abrasive powders to make the first finished piece.

The master is then laid on to layers of rubber, which is heated up and forms around the master. This process is called vulcanisation. The master is carefully cut out from the rubber, leaving the impression in the rubber. Wax is then injected into the mold, left to dry and removed. These waxes are an exact copy of the metal master. This process is then repeated until the required number of waxes is produced.

The waxes are then attached to a centre wax spru, forming a tree like shape with the waxes acting as the branches. The wax tree containing all the waxes is then put into a metal cylinder called a flask, which is filled with a plaster type substance called investment and allowed to solidify and harden. The flask in then placed into a kiln, burning the wax out and leaving a cavity in the shape of the wax tree. The flask is taken out of the kiln and put into a vacuum casting machine that heats up the 9ct, 18ct gold and sterling silver metal to the correct temperature and poured into the hole where the wax had melted out. The vacuum casting machine ensures that any air inside the mold is removed, so the castings have little to no porosity (air inside). The flask is then plunged into a water tank, which ensures all the investment (plaster) is removed. This leaves you with a metal with the branches being the original wax castings but in precious metal instead. A great video showing this can be found here.

In the final stage, the metal castings are cut away from the tree and cleaned up in a centrifugal polisher. Each piece is finished by hand to make sure there are no small blemishes/imperfections and then buffed and polished by hand, leaving a high quality look, feel and finish. The finished precious metal items are then sent off to the Sheffield Assay office for hallmarking, ensuring the recipients of their authenticity and pedigree.

If you would like any more information regarding our precious metal items or have a design in mind, please don’t hesitate to use the contact form and get in touch.