Bob Cleek

Priming filled surfaces is always recommended unless one is using a "filler stain" or sanding base coat that is specifically formulated to be used beneath a specific finish coating. (Some manufacturers will produce a compatible "system" for filling and finishing.)  I always apply sealer (shellac,) to sanded bare wood. Shellac seals the wood well from moisture and inhibits movement with humidity changes. Only then do I apply sanding under coat and/or surfacing putty, then sand and tack, and, if any fillers have been used in addition to the sanding base coat, again apply a coat of sanding base coat, sand, and tack, and only then apply my build up of finish coats. Gloss paint has little or no application in modeling. (It's not to scale.) Generally, an "eggshell," "satin," or flat finish is desired, so applying a base coat over anything like undercoat or surfacing putty (AKA "fairing compound") isn't as critical in modeling as when applying a high gloss finish to something like a yacht's topsides, but that said, the "fillers" are all basically chalk dust added to a carrier to produce varying consistencies between "cream" and "peanut butter," and that chalk will soak up the finish coats differently than the surrounding primer coating when it's all sanded, depending on the micro-textures of the differing products. That difference will often be glaringly revealed once the finish coats are applied, on a gloss finish particularly, by "dull" spots wherever there has been un-primed filler remaining after sanding fair. Painting over the filler ("priming it") with sanding undercoat and lightly sanding fair and tacking before applying the finish coats ensures the final finish, be it gloss (especially) or satin or flat (less so,) will be uniform. This is more of a problem with gloss finish coats, which can end up with dull spots wherever un-primed filler material is present. 
 
If one is finishing wood "bright" (clear,) especially with the fine grained woods usually used in modeling, there shouldn't be any need for "filling" or "fairing" the surface. A sanding of the bare wood down to around 220 or 320 grit should yield a surface which needs no grain filling or fairing before sealing with shellac. The shellacked surface can then be further sanded (lightly, without removing the shellac sealer down to bare wood again) to 400, or rubbed with fine steel wool, and the clear finish coats applied directly over that. 
 
As always with all of the synthetic coatings on the market these days, it pays to do a test on a bit of scrap wood to make sure the various coatings and fillers used are compatible. Some incompatibilities produce some pretty horrendous results that are difficult and time consuming to correct.

I don't use sanding sealers. I use shellac as a sealer and sanding base coat for covering imperfections, although those should be rare on a model. Many people apply a sanding sealer, thinking they are sealing the wood, and then sand it off, to bare wood in places, trying to get a fair surface. Sealer should go on thin and penetrate the wood. I use sanding base coat to fill imperfections after that.
 
IMHO, wipe-on will not do as good as a sealer, but something is better than nothing. Wipe-on is wiped on and pretty much forms a film over the surface of the wood. It's just a thin surface coat of polyurethane varnish. It sells well because any idiot can wipe it on and won't make a dog's breakfast of it. Shellac is alcohol based and has the consistency of water. You brush it on generously. It soaks deep into the wood, particularly the end grain. When it dries, it's one of the best moisture barrier coatings known to man. You can sand it very smooth. Anything else sticks to it fine. It's compatible with everything. It can be easily sanded to a very fine degree of smoothness. It's easy to clean up. It washes off with alcohol. It's relatively inexpensive. 
 
I use Zinsser "Bulls Eye" clear shellac. Fifteen bucks a quart. (It doesn't skin over in the can like paint and varnish do, so you won't have to buy it too often. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Zinsser-Bulls-Eye-Clear-Shellac-Actual-Net-Contents-32-fl-oz/3449840?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-pnt-_-google-_-lia-_-219-_-interiorstains-_-3449840-_-0&store_code=1901&placeholder=null&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzqOgn6vD5wIVFq5kCh3ZawjTEAQYASABEgKoDfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
On models, I don't ever really have a need to fill grain, but if I want to use a sanding base coat, I use Interlux Pre-Kote or whatever other sanding primer is on my paint locker shelf at the time. Pre-Kote runs around $35 a quart, which is way more than anybody'd ever need for a model. It's sold in chandleries and on line. Any sanding base coat (sometimes called "primer") compatible with whatever finish coat you are using should be fine. The products sold at professional auto body and paint supply outfits are quite good and more reasonably priced than the stuff "with a boat on the can." You just want one that will give you a uniform colored base and is easily sanded. It can be applied in multiple coats to fill grain and minor imperfections and then sanded smooth.  https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=120&engine=adwords&keyword=interlux_pre_kote&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk5uU8bTD5wIVC8JkCh1jRAm7EAAYASAAEgIYM_D_BwE
 
If I have serious nicks and dings, or for puttying generally, I use Interlux surfacing putty. It's $30 a pint, which is outrageous, in my opinion, but I guess it's all about the environmental regulations. It's thinned with acetone. It will last a long time after opening if you keep the lid edges clean and turn it upside down when you put it back on the shelf. If it starts to harden, adding a bit of acetone to the can and letting it sit over night will restore it. The stuff absorbs the acetone on its own over time. It drys very fast and sands very easily and will give a very smooth surface. https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=4154 Any other surfacing putty or "fairing compound," as it's sometimes called, will work pretty much the same. I do not favor Bondo for any application on wood. It's for metal. Epoxy resin mixed with micro-balloons works well, too, but it's expensive and very messy to work with.
 
Racing yachts do indeed have high gloss topside finishes. For a model, though, a high gloss finish would not be to scale. If you look at a high gloss finish up close, it's glossy, but at "scale viewing distance," a model would look like a shiny toy if painted with a high gloss finish. It needs to be toned down. If you look at a glossy example in real life and then back away from it until you can view the entire boat (or car) in your eye's "frame," you'll see that from thirty or fifty feet away, it doesn't appear super-glossy. A semi-gloss, "eggshell," or "satin" finish would be more appropriate. You can, of course, paint a model hull with high gloss paint and then, when the paint is well dried, hand-rub the finish with pumice and rottenstone to the degree of gloss you want. This is the best way to go about it, really. A hand-rubbed finish is "finestkind," but will take additional time and effort.  

I don't use sanding sealers. I use shellac as a sealer and sanding base coat for covering imperfections, although those should be rare on a model. Many people apply a sanding sealer, thinking they are sealing the wood, and then sand it off, to bare wood in places, trying to get a fair surface. Sealer should go on thin and penetrate the wood. I use sanding base coat to fill imperfections after that.
 
IMHO, wipe-on will not do as good as a sealer, but something is better than nothing. Wipe-on is wiped on and pretty much forms a film over the surface of the wood. It's just a thin surface coat of polyurethane varnish. It sells well because any idiot can wipe it on and won't make a dog's breakfast of it. Shellac is alcohol based and has the consistency of water. You brush it on generously. It soaks deep into the wood, particularly the end grain. When it dries, it's one of the best moisture barrier coatings known to man. You can sand it very smooth. Anything else sticks to it fine. It's compatible with everything. It can be easily sanded to a very fine degree of smoothness. It's easy to clean up. It washes off with alcohol. It's relatively inexpensive. 
 
I use Zinsser "Bulls Eye" clear shellac. Fifteen bucks a quart. (It doesn't skin over in the can like paint and varnish do, so you won't have to buy it too often. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Zinsser-Bulls-Eye-Clear-Shellac-Actual-Net-Contents-32-fl-oz/3449840?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-pnt-_-google-_-lia-_-219-_-interiorstains-_-3449840-_-0&store_code=1901&placeholder=null&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzqOgn6vD5wIVFq5kCh3ZawjTEAQYASABEgKoDfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
On models, I don't ever really have a need to fill grain, but if I want to use a sanding base coat, I use Interlux Pre-Kote or whatever other sanding primer is on my paint locker shelf at the time. Pre-Kote runs around $35 a quart, which is way more than anybody'd ever need for a model. It's sold in chandleries and on line. Any sanding base coat (sometimes called "primer") compatible with whatever finish coat you are using should be fine. The products sold at professional auto body and paint supply outfits are quite good and more reasonably priced than the stuff "with a boat on the can." You just want one that will give you a uniform colored base and is easily sanded. It can be applied in multiple coats to fill grain and minor imperfections and then sanded smooth.  https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=120&engine=adwords&keyword=interlux_pre_kote&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk5uU8bTD5wIVC8JkCh1jRAm7EAAYASAAEgIYM_D_BwE
 
If I have serious nicks and dings, or for puttying generally, I use Interlux surfacing putty. It's $30 a pint, which is outrageous, in my opinion, but I guess it's all about the environmental regulations. It's thinned with acetone. It will last a long time after opening if you keep the lid edges clean and turn it upside down when you put it back on the shelf. If it starts to harden, adding a bit of acetone to the can and letting it sit over night will restore it. The stuff absorbs the acetone on its own over time. It drys very fast and sands very easily and will give a very smooth surface. https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=4154 Any other surfacing putty or "fairing compound," as it's sometimes called, will work pretty much the same. I do not favor Bondo for any application on wood. It's for metal. Epoxy resin mixed with micro-balloons works well, too, but it's expensive and very messy to work with.
 
Racing yachts do indeed have high gloss topside finishes. For a model, though, a high gloss finish would not be to scale. If you look at a high gloss finish up close, it's glossy, but at "scale viewing distance," a model would look like a shiny toy if painted with a high gloss finish. It needs to be toned down. If you look at a glossy example in real life and then back away from it until you can view the entire boat (or car) in your eye's "frame," you'll see that from thirty or fifty feet away, it doesn't appear super-glossy. A semi-gloss, "eggshell," or "satin" finish would be more appropriate. You can, of course, paint a model hull with high gloss paint and then, when the paint is well dried, hand-rub the finish with pumice and rottenstone to the degree of gloss you want. This is the best way to go about it, really. A hand-rubbed finish is "finestkind," but will take additional time and effort.  

Ingenious!

It looks like a current model Stanley No. 101 or a similar knock-off.  These are must-have modeling tools in my book.
 
Original Stanley 101 plane and squrrel tailed hand planes. (15/16" irons)
 

  Current Stanley Model 12-101 with folded sheet metal body.       Ten bucks on Amazon. Some places have them for as little as eight bucks. The new ones are made of folded sheet metal, but entirely serviceable. https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Tools-12-101-Small-Trimming/dp/B00DF3FP68/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8   Kunz (Germany) still makes heavy cast iron copies of the old Stanley 101s in plain and "squirrel tail" styles. The squirrel tail is my favorite. Original old cast iron Stanley 101's are collectors items these days. Kunz's cast iron regular copy runs $20.00 and the squirrel tailed one goes for $21.00 from Highland Woodworking. I prefer the hefty feel of my Kunz cast iron ones over my current Stanley sheet metal bodied one, although the current Stanley 101 is lighter in an apron pocket. https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/kunzpalmplanewithhandle.aspx     For use in the jig set-up illustrated in this thread, I'd expect the sheet metal bodied current Stanley 101 would be more suitable as it would be easier to machine the body sides to accommodate the "sled runners" than would drilling and tapping a cast iron Kunz model.                

A pretty sophisticated set-up. Great if you are making large numbers of spars. However, for the small number most models need....

Beautiful workmanship and a very practical design, HYW!
 
Thanks for sharing your beautiful tools and jigs. While I'll probably never be capable of your metalworking skills, your devices are a great inspiration to me.
 
I'm not sure what the function of the yellow "bumper" (?) on the metal rod might be, but from your creative design, I can see how I can build an similar adjustable "sled" to mount on my lathe cross-slide. This will permit me to chuck a mast blank into a chuck mounted on my headstock and use the integral dividing head to plane tapering polyhedra as required. In such an arrangement, I can also use the lathe to turn the mast blank and obtain perfectly round tapers as well. In other words, I've already got the powered chuck and dividing head, so all I need to do is build the "taper jig" for my late. 
 
My "spar lathe" is a Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" and there is a tapering jig for the lathe, but they are somewhat rare and quite expensive when one can be located. Unlike the manufacturer's tapering jig, your adjustable "sled" does not require the use of traveling backrest, which is a plus in terms of ease of operation.
 
Thanks again for sharing another great modeling tool. Keep them coming!

That is brilliant! You have a built in steady rest to stop deflection of those narrow spars.

The Smith Little Torch runs on oxygen and propane, acetylene, or MAPP gas. (I believe they also run on natural gas, which is about the same as propane.) I don't know of any small propane-only torches. Propane-only torches seem to start with the regular "plumber's torch" sizes which are too large for small modeling work. (These aspirate air into an integral combustion chamber.) Small non-oxygen torches seem to be limited to the small butane torches. 
 
Running straight propane through the Little Torch will get you a flame, but it won't be hot enough to be of any use. Think "butane cigarette lighter." It's the oxygen that causes the intense heat.
 
I don't think you can go too far wrong with the Smith Little torch with oxygen and propane for modeling work. The disposable Bernzomatic oxygen bottles are priced comparably to the Bernzomatic disposable propane, acetylene, and MAPP gas bottles. These sizes last for a long time doing small work and are compact and easy to store. If you are a gas cutter and welder, you can use large oxygen tanks, of course, but the Bernzomatic disposable bottles are the least expensive way to go if you aren't already "cookin' with gas."

Interesting historical footnote. I'm no expert, either, but I can't seem to come up with a reason the Royal George's carpenter or bosun didn't simply didn't send somebody overboard to knock a temporary plug into the hole outboard. It was only three feet below the waterline on an even keel. That would have made it possible to accomplish the same thing as heeling the ship with far, far less work or risk. I ought to have been the first solution that occurred to any competent ship's carpenter or bosun's mate. 
 
Better yet, I'm wondering whether or not that fact ever occurred to the Board of Inquiry!

A truly beautiful piece of work! Congratulations and thanks for taking what was a lot of time to share your building her with us!

Great picture! I presume the  print is from a photograph. It sure would be neat if the original could be located and digitally enhanced. A framed digitally enhanced print of that shot would be a wonderful companion to the model.

Beautiful workmanship and a very practical design, HYW!
 
Thanks for sharing your beautiful tools and jigs. While I'll probably never be capable of your metalworking skills, your devices are a great inspiration to me.
 
I'm not sure what the function of the yellow "bumper" (?) on the metal rod might be, but from your creative design, I can see how I can build an similar adjustable "sled" to mount on my lathe cross-slide. This will permit me to chuck a mast blank into a chuck mounted on my headstock and use the integral dividing head to plane tapering polyhedra as required. In such an arrangement, I can also use the lathe to turn the mast blank and obtain perfectly round tapers as well. In other words, I've already got the powered chuck and dividing head, so all I need to do is build the "taper jig" for my late. 
 
My "spar lathe" is a Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" and there is a tapering jig for the lathe, but they are somewhat rare and quite expensive when one can be located. Unlike the manufacturer's tapering jig, your adjustable "sled" does not require the use of traveling backrest, which is a plus in terms of ease of operation.
 
Thanks again for sharing another great modeling tool. Keep them coming!

Beautiful workmanship and a very practical design, HYW!
 
Thanks for sharing your beautiful tools and jigs. While I'll probably never be capable of your metalworking skills, your devices are a great inspiration to me.
 
I'm not sure what the function of the yellow "bumper" (?) on the metal rod might be, but from your creative design, I can see how I can build an similar adjustable "sled" to mount on my lathe cross-slide. This will permit me to chuck a mast blank into a chuck mounted on my headstock and use the integral dividing head to plane tapering polyhedra as required. In such an arrangement, I can also use the lathe to turn the mast blank and obtain perfectly round tapers as well. In other words, I've already got the powered chuck and dividing head, so all I need to do is build the "taper jig" for my late. 
 
My "spar lathe" is a Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" and there is a tapering jig for the lathe, but they are somewhat rare and quite expensive when one can be located. Unlike the manufacturer's tapering jig, your adjustable "sled" does not require the use of traveling backrest, which is a plus in terms of ease of operation.
 
Thanks again for sharing another great modeling tool. Keep them coming!

Interesting historical footnote. I'm no expert, either, but I can't seem to come up with a reason the Royal George's carpenter or bosun didn't simply didn't send somebody overboard to knock a temporary plug into the hole outboard. It was only three feet below the waterline on an even keel. That would have made it possible to accomplish the same thing as heeling the ship with far, far less work or risk. I ought to have been the first solution that occurred to any competent ship's carpenter or bosun's mate. 
 
Better yet, I'm wondering whether or not that fact ever occurred to the Board of Inquiry!

The stove looks great!

There are some guys here into tool-making, but he beats us all. And, he must have somewhere a second life to spare, for all the time he spends on the tools
 

What is it?   How is it used?

Continuing on with Deck Furnishing this week. Starting to come together...


Next up is the Aft House. This should be very interesting 🤔 

"Channel surfing" last night, I stumbled upon a gold mine of professionally produced instructional videos on a wide range of topics including woodworking and jewelry making. These are being offered on an apparently new "craft network" called Bluprint TV. Because of the Covid-19 "lockdowns," my cable provider (Comcast Xfinity X1) and probably others, are offering free premium pay channels for a limited time (at present, at least until 40-9-20. )(I found Bluprint by saying "free to me" into my voice-controlled remote control.)
 
On Bluprint, I found a "jewelry" subsection and in there I found two really good streaming video series on soldering jewelry. They are directly applicable to soldering ship model parts, of course. One, Solder Smarter: Strategies for Better Results featuring a jewelry maker named Joanna Gollberg, runs perhaps two hours (I didn't keep track) and begins with an complete instruction on the use of the Smith Little Torch and all the basic techniques of soldering. I'd considered myself a fairly competent solderer after doing it for well over fifty years, but I found myself continuously learning one new thing after another in this online course. 
 
These Bluprint instructional courses are head and shoulders above anything on YouTube, as far as "how-to-do-it" videos go. These are real professional level courses with competent teachers and high production values. Bluprint also has other more advanced courses on soldering, jewelers' metalworking, and even on the proper uses of flex-shaft tools.  I figure I'll be spending the next few evenings going through them while I "shelter in place."
 
They are also currently available free as streaming videos at https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/solder-smarter-strategies-for-better-results/40550 .
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/soldering-success-in-every-scenario/58346
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/metalsmithing-at-home/35434
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/getting-started-with-the-flex-shaft/40629
 

"Channel surfing" last night, I stumbled upon a gold mine of professionally produced instructional videos on a wide range of topics including woodworking and jewelry making. These are being offered on an apparently new "craft network" called Bluprint TV. Because of the Covid-19 "lockdowns," my cable provider (Comcast Xfinity X1) and probably others, are offering free premium pay channels for a limited time (at present, at least until 40-9-20. )(I found Bluprint by saying "free to me" into my voice-controlled remote control.)
 
On Bluprint, I found a "jewelry" subsection and in there I found two really good streaming video series on soldering jewelry. They are directly applicable to soldering ship model parts, of course. One, Solder Smarter: Strategies for Better Results featuring a jewelry maker named Joanna Gollberg, runs perhaps two hours (I didn't keep track) and begins with an complete instruction on the use of the Smith Little Torch and all the basic techniques of soldering. I'd considered myself a fairly competent solderer after doing it for well over fifty years, but I found myself continuously learning one new thing after another in this online course. 
 
These Bluprint instructional courses are head and shoulders above anything on YouTube, as far as "how-to-do-it" videos go. These are real professional level courses with competent teachers and high production values. Bluprint also has other more advanced courses on soldering, jewelers' metalworking, and even on the proper uses of flex-shaft tools.  I figure I'll be spending the next few evenings going through them while I "shelter in place."
 
They are also currently available free as streaming videos at https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/solder-smarter-strategies-for-better-results/40550 .
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/soldering-success-in-every-scenario/58346
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/metalsmithing-at-home/35434
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/getting-started-with-the-flex-shaft/40629
 

"Channel surfing" last night, I stumbled upon a gold mine of professionally produced instructional videos on a wide range of topics including woodworking and jewelry making. These are being offered on an apparently new "craft network" called Bluprint TV. Because of the Covid-19 "lockdowns," my cable provider (Comcast Xfinity X1) and probably others, are offering free premium pay channels for a limited time (at present, at least until 40-9-20. )(I found Bluprint by saying "free to me" into my voice-controlled remote control.)
 
On Bluprint, I found a "jewelry" subsection and in there I found two really good streaming video series on soldering jewelry. They are directly applicable to soldering ship model parts, of course. One, Solder Smarter: Strategies for Better Results featuring a jewelry maker named Joanna Gollberg, runs perhaps two hours (I didn't keep track) and begins with an complete instruction on the use of the Smith Little Torch and all the basic techniques of soldering. I'd considered myself a fairly competent solderer after doing it for well over fifty years, but I found myself continuously learning one new thing after another in this online course. 
 
These Bluprint instructional courses are head and shoulders above anything on YouTube, as far as "how-to-do-it" videos go. These are real professional level courses with competent teachers and high production values. Bluprint also has other more advanced courses on soldering, jewelers' metalworking, and even on the proper uses of flex-shaft tools.  I figure I'll be spending the next few evenings going through them while I "shelter in place."
 
They are also currently available free as streaming videos at https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/solder-smarter-strategies-for-better-results/40550 .
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/soldering-success-in-every-scenario/58346
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/metalsmithing-at-home/35434
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/getting-started-with-the-flex-shaft/40629
 

For sure! They definitely are going to change the way I solder.  After listening to Solder Smarter for about fifteen minutes last night, I put it on "pause" and went and got a pen and paper and started taking notes. 

"Channel surfing" last night, I stumbled upon a gold mine of professionally produced instructional videos on a wide range of topics including woodworking and jewelry making. These are being offered on an apparently new "craft network" called Bluprint TV. Because of the Covid-19 "lockdowns," my cable provider (Comcast Xfinity X1) and probably others, are offering free premium pay channels for a limited time (at present, at least until 40-9-20. )(I found Bluprint by saying "free to me" into my voice-controlled remote control.)
 
On Bluprint, I found a "jewelry" subsection and in there I found two really good streaming video series on soldering jewelry. They are directly applicable to soldering ship model parts, of course. One, Solder Smarter: Strategies for Better Results featuring a jewelry maker named Joanna Gollberg, runs perhaps two hours (I didn't keep track) and begins with an complete instruction on the use of the Smith Little Torch and all the basic techniques of soldering. I'd considered myself a fairly competent solderer after doing it for well over fifty years, but I found myself continuously learning one new thing after another in this online course. 
 
These Bluprint instructional courses are head and shoulders above anything on YouTube, as far as "how-to-do-it" videos go. These are real professional level courses with competent teachers and high production values. Bluprint also has other more advanced courses on soldering, jewelers' metalworking, and even on the proper uses of flex-shaft tools.  I figure I'll be spending the next few evenings going through them while I "shelter in place."
 
They are also currently available free as streaming videos at https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/solder-smarter-strategies-for-better-results/40550 .
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/soldering-success-in-every-scenario/58346
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/metalsmithing-at-home/35434
 
https://shop.mybluprint.com/jewelry/classes/getting-started-with-the-flex-shaft/40629
 

Druxey is correct about the metal recycling programs in Britain during the War. (And, later, in the U.S.) However, if the period depicted in the model is "circa 1940," it has to be remembered that the War in Europe began in September, 1939, and British "metal drives" began in July of 1940. It seems highly unlikely that serviceable cargo vessels, equivalent to today's tractor-trailer trucks, would have been cannibalized for their metal at that point in the conflict. Moreover, Britain's famous "iron railing" scrap iron drive, and pretty much all others in Britain and the U.S., are generally recognized by historians to have been more a propaganda effort to galvanize civilian support and participation in the war effort than anything else. They focused primarily on the large amount of Victorian-era iron fence and gate work that, at that time, was deemed "expendable." It certainly was good propaganda. Nobody wanted to be the only "unpatriotic" one on their block with iron fencing and gates still standing in front of their house! In fact, it appears only a small fraction of the ornamental ironwork contributed to the war effort ever was used for wartime production and, while some made its way into the post-war recycling chain, an awful lot of it seems to have simply been dumped. (Reportedly, wartime Thames Estuary pilots complained that so much ornamental ironwork was being dumped in the Thames Estuary that it was throwing off their ships' compasses!) Curiously, after the War, the records of what was done with the more than a million tons of valuable British hand-wrought ornamental ironwork was discovered to have been mysteriously shredded.  Ever since, there's been quite a bit of resentment over the loss of what was a signature piece of British architectural heritage that was destroyed for political reasons rather than wartime necessity. 
 
See: https://www.londongardenstrust.org/features/railings3.htm 
 
       https://mashable.com/2016/02/03/wwii-scrap-metal/