The Creative Kansan

Cold-Rolled Steel Sculptures by Frank R. Reese, Sr

Western Horseman:

I am very proud of my father, and would like to share his talents with you. He is a welder and has been welding for 23 years. Since I have a horse collection ot 93 models, Dad said he would make me a horse that money couldn't buy. And he did! It is 11 inches long, 11 inches high, and weighs 26 pounds.

Dad made a buffalo for my brother. It is eight inches high, eleven inches long, and weighs 41 pounds. This statue took 101 hours of labor to complete. Now Dad is working on a longhorn steer.

Susan Reese

Lindsborg, Kansas

Since the above letter appeared in The Western Horseman, October 1969, Susan's father Frank R. Reese, Sr., of Lindsborg, has completed a 30 pound longhorn steer from photographs sent to him by the Cow- boy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. And his latest creation is an elk, fashioned in the same manner as the other animals.

Each of Reese's small statues is made from a solid chunk of cold-rolled steel. He does not cast the statues from clay models. Each is shaped from a steel core with practiced arcs of his familiar working tools-a c e t y l e n e and electric cutting torches.

After studying pictures for several days, Reese will grab a chunk of metal and just start cutting. He works from all angies of the sculpture so the design will take shape with the right scale and proportion.

With each figure that Reese fashions he solves some problems which makes work on the next animal a little easier. He has also learned to make his own tools. The shaggy mane of the buffalo is etched in precise detail on the hard steel. Reese pounded each groove in the mane with a steel hammer he made from part of an oil well rig.

After the sculptures are completed, Reese has them finished with acid dyes used on guns. The dye penetrates the steel about .004 of an inch and protects it against rust and corrosion. The solid steel statues, protected from exterior rusting, are indestructible, Reese says.

Since he only works at night on the sculptures, Reese's projects may take sev- eral years. His full-time job is repairing farm implements and welding bridge pilings and oil rigs. Several years ago he designed and welded an eight-ton hydraulic feed wagon. Reese, a master of his trade, has worked with metal all his life and is con- fident of his skills.

It isn't any surprise to Susan's father himself that he has been able to create the horse, buftalo, steer and elk which are accurate in detail and proportion.

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WWW version added on 04-26-97
Last updated on 04-26-97

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