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The way to American elite is through Hungarian wrought iron gates
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It was a Hungarian blacksmith who drafted and crafted the entrance gate of the American Yale University’s college, as Hvg.hu reports. The craftsmen received an award of rank overseas, but it is still not known in Hungary.
The tender, organisation, and drafting was coordinated by Zoltán Kovács, who studied in Dunaújváros, the acropolis of iron and steel manufacture, and then was employed in casting and casting design. Afterwards, he worked for the French company Les Metalliers Champenois (LMC) in the US, the company which had renewed the New York Statue of Liberty’s torch. After a few years, he became the vice president of the company and turned into the committed believer of traditional metallurgy and continuous training. For this reason, he contacted the summer camp of the Hungarian Metallurgy Trade Guild where
he offered an airplane ticket, opportunity of studying for 1.5 years, and payment
for the handicraftsman who would work for him and train with him. To his surprise, years had passed by the time somebody applied. Szabolcs Németh and Gábor Szombathy started working with him under these conditions, and this is how the excellent team was formed.
In 2012, Zoltán Kovács left LMC and focussed on his own, already existing company, Covax Design.
Their customers were familiarised with Zoltán’s own works, and they received more requests for production, not only designing.
Soon the team won Yale’s tender for making their wrought-iron gates in a serious international competition. Zoltán Kovács explained on the phone how vital it was that both Hungarian handicraftsmen said yes to the request since this grand work could not have been done by many people in the industry. They gained great honour in the industry by crafting the gates, he added.
Szabolcs Németh and Gábor Szombathy travelled to New Jersey for the 14-month job after half a year of preparations. The workshop of 400 square metres ground space was established in Clifton. They processed almost 4 tons of iron and steel and used 2.5 tons of coke for keeping them hot. The workshop was well-equipped, which made their work more accessible.
