Some people are just born creators. They have a vision, a blueprint, that gnaws at them to complete. They spend years researching, thinking, planning before ever creating, but once they do, what they fabricate, what they produce, it is a true work of art, energy, skill and craft.
Some people are just born creators. They have a vision, a blueprint, that gnaws at them to complete. They spend years researching, thinking, planning before ever creating, but once they do, what they fabricate, what they produce, it is a true work of art, energy, skill and craft.
This is the type of project being undertaken quietly in the workshop of LeRoy Kayl in Custer.
A lifelong blacksmith and recent retiree, LeRoy has always been drawn to fabricating for necessity, making trailers or utilitarian pieces around his home. But never has he undertaken a work of art before. And his first creation, a life size bison, is truly something majestic, an homage to the actual animal itself that roams just a few short miles from the Kayl home.
Old Steel, named after a nickname LeRoy himself had as a child, towers over the man that is creating him. Walking into LeRoy ' s blacksmith shop is an interesting experience, a meticulous space well organized with a variety of old tools dating back over 200 years. His apron, ear protection and welding helmets are prominently featured. This is where Old Steel is born.
LeRoy created Old Steel from images: photographs he took, scenes he played in his mind, blueprints he wrote out in his head.
There were no measurements, no previous designs. Just a vision born out of love for his wife Elizabeth who marveled at the bisons throughout Custer and wanted one of her very own.
“ She wanted one because she saw those fiberglass ones on Main Street in Custer. I looked at them and they weren’ t as life-like” due to their size.“ So I told her I’ d make one,” LeRoy explained.
Because of his wife’ s background with the arts in Colorado, LeRoy was no stranger to seeing artists’ renderings of buffalo in a variety of different artistic mediums. But because of his background growing up on a farm outside of Aberdeen, LeRoy wanted to create a bison out of metal, textured with old tools. LeRoy was taught how to weld by his father who was a farmer about 50 years ago, but the other skills needed to make Old Steel were self taught.
The life size buffalo is completely made out of scrap metal and old tools, most of which was found locally. The frame was created from an old metal swing set. The skin of the animal was fabricated from metal sheets, old lawn edging that was going to be thrown away.
“ As I was building this I didn ' t have enough,” LeRoy explained and he placed an ad asking if anyone had more. He found some about to be discarded in Rapid City and instead gave it new life in his piece of art.
I AM IRONMAN LeRoy Kayl in his shop in Custer. Notice the collection of old tools behind him, some of which were used to birth Old Steel. myblackshillscountry. com Down Country Roads
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