Materials & Steel
Twiggy: the 30° cut you only see if it is wrong
The head of the column is parallel to the ground. It seems obvious. It is not at all.
· 1 min read
On the columns of the Twiggy series there is a detail nobody notices, and that is exactly the sign it was done well: the head is perfectly parallel to the floor.
When you bend a tube, the metal moves. And it does not move only where the curve is: the whole geometry downstream shifts. If you cut the head after the bend you are chasing a moving target, and the result ends up depending on luck.
We do the opposite. The cut is made first, on the still-raw tube, at an angle of thirty degrees.
Thirty degrees that at that point look like a mistake. The piece, resting on the bench, has a crooked head. Then comes the bend, the metal moves exactly as much as was planned, and that angle drops to zero. The head comes down parallel to the ground.
It means having calculated in advance the physical movement of the metal and having cut for a shape that does not exist yet.
It is a compensation, and compensations leave no trace. If the calculation is right, you see nothing. You only see it if it is wrong.