![Although the missing foliage makes for a chilly photo, here the forged steel stem and leaf by blacksmith Mark Bokenkamp can be clearly seen.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-33.jpg)
![Stone apples tolerate the cold very well.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-14.jpg)
There was something about carving this large apple core that I found relaxing. It was an unusually enjoyable job.
![Sharpie tastes bad even if you spit it out right away.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-1.jpg)
The original model, enlarged 1000% and carved in stone, with a forged steel stem and leaf. Very cool commission.
![Whack-A-Mole anyone?](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-2.jpg)
My favorite 1/4″ chisel doing it’s thing on the rough out, right behind Mr. Grinder doing its.
![That is my hammer in there, upside down, pretending to be the stem.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-18.jpg)
Almost fully roughed in; carving until late at night again. Some days I have to chase myself out of the studio.
![I've been driving this lift since 1989. Thanks Tony!](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-19.jpg)
Now, how do you flip a 2000 pound stone apple over? You roll it over with your forklift, of course.
![(I bet those bumps have a name. Maybe I should Google it.)](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-20.jpg)
Upside down and that big it almost doesn’t look like an apple anymore. Rough out is complete.
![Planning every bite. Obsessive to the last.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-21.jpg)
I have refined the texture of the skin, and have eaten the apple and done my best to record the result. Time to bite into the stone.
![Chomp Chomp!](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-22.jpg)
I considered biting deeply enough to expose a seed, but decided against it.
![Thanks Mark!](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-10.jpg)
Maryann, my wife Wendy, and I had a good day traveling to Bokenkamp’s Forge near Mohican State Park, where we watched Mark forging the stem and leaf. The stem is wrought iron, the leaf cold steel.
![Hanging with the blacksmith- who gets to do that?](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-26.jpg)
Mark has welded a handle to the stem for handling, and does the final shaping by hand on the anvil. Even white hot it takes some serious hammering to bend a piece this thick.
![Satisfied smile, well earned.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Apple-13.jpg)
The most beautiful apple stem imaginable.
![lying on a bed of hot coal...](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-27.jpg)
The leaf, just getting started. I love the image of the burning leaf that won’t burn.
![The leaf that will never wilt.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-29.jpg)
The finished apple, ready for delivery. I can’t wait to see it on it’s granite base! Delivery is scheduled for next week. It’s very cold this week; I hope it gets above single digits next week.
![Thanks fellas, for digging the most perfect hole ever, 36" deep, in hard and rocky ground.](https://oldworldstonecarving.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/apple-32.jpg)
Maryann with the granite base, freshly planted. The column was buried in a yard near Powell, Ohio, for decades. No one knows why. It was made before diamond saws were used to cut granite, as the bottom and top are distinctly hand-tooled. The column has been in place for the last few months. By the end of spring it will look like it’s always been there. Thanks Maryann!