Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion
Correction: A photo captioned “Heavy Metal” in the Sunday, June 26 edition of the Clarion misidentified a metal-cast animal skull. According to wildlife biologist Thomas McDonough of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the skull belonged to a wolf. The Clarion regrets this error.
A bear skull cast in copper sits on a display shelf in the Kenai City Council meeting chambers on Wednesday, June 15. It was cast by welder and blacksmith Scott Hamann of Kenai’s Metal Magic Foundry, who said “there’s something about playing with molten metal that really gets me going.”
“The end product is interesting, and I like the end product, but to me it’s more about the process,” Hamann said. “I like the melting of the metal, I love the actual doing of it just as much as the object I make.”
Hamann estimated it weighs about 45 pounds.
