Metalsmithing and Related Topics

I posted pics of one of these before, here,  but this time (this one is #5), I took pictures while I made it so I can show how it was made. The first five pictures show (1) The three blanks, cut out and annealed, (2) pushing the metal into a groove to start the tube shape, (3) forming the top part, (4) hammering the tube closed, (5) the three parts, seams silver-soldered, and pickled, ready for the next stage.

Next we have the process of twisting the three elements into one. The metal is very soft from the heat of soldering, so it twists pretty easily. It’s thick enough metal (16 gauge) so that crimping or kinking is not an issue. After it’s twisted together, it has to be soldered, just enough to make it solid; two small spots of solder on the back is all that’s required.

Now the flower petals are given their graceful form, then we see the almost completed piece, with the bottom ends marked for cutting, and then the hanger attached to the back. Some final planishing smooths out the surface before buffing.

The finished piece, hanging on a wall. It’s about 13″ tall.

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I first thought about making a bird in flight using my one-piece technique as with my previous birds, quite a long time ago, but was hung up on having the seam lengthwise as before, and came to a dead end for how to do it. I had pretty much given up on the idea until a few weeks ago, while waking breifly during the night, the solution suddenly popped into my head. Fortunately I remembered it in the morning, and was able to start working on the idea. It turned out to be mostly a tooling project, and took quite a long while to get the tooling and techniques correct. This first picture shows all my failures.

One of the biggest problems was breaking through at the beak end of the head, so I had to develop several stages of punching the head, with annealing between each stage. These next five pictures show the process from first annealing (flat blank) to the point where it’s ready for second annealing.

The wood die in the pictures has a large hole at one end and a smaller hole at the other end. All the rest of the steps shown are done at the smaller one. The next picture shows it punched with a slightly smaller hemispherical punch, again ready for annealing. Next, punch is same diameter, but bullet-shaped, and ready for annealing again. Then we have the most elaborate tool I’ve made so far, to finish the shaping of the head.

Next, using that fancy tool, I shape the rest of the body and the tail. Then some hammering to get it ready to silver-solder the seam. Then we see the seam soldered.

The next steps are pretty mundane: filing, grinding, sanding, polishing, attaching a jump ring to the back. Here’s the final result:

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It’s been about two years since my first try, and I’ve tried several times since then to make an interesting fish shape using the same method I use for my birds. The biggest problem was that I wanted the fish to be curved, to make it more dynamic and interesting, and that turned out to make it infinitely more complicated than a straight fish would be. After several failed tries, I realized I was going to have to have a better way to create the pattern for the flat piece that it starts with. I finally came up with a method that works fairly well: make a clay model, and dip it in dip seal. Dip seal is a flexible rubbery plastic stuff that melts at 360f and makes a nice coating, which can be cut at the same place the seam will go, then removed from the clay model. This can then be flattened out, more or less, onto a piece of paper, and the outline traced with a pencil, yielding a pattern for cutting out the metal piece.

The first three pictures show the clay model before and after dipping, and the dip seal pattern removed and ready to use.

The next three pictures show the annealed flat piece I started with, then when it was ready for the second annealing, and the third annealing.

The next pictures show a little bit of the hammering, and the piece further along, ready for annealing again.

Then, some more hammering, closing it up. It took four separate soldering steps to complete the seam.

Once the piece was soldered I did a lot more hammering to refine the shape, and planishing to get a nice smooth surface. The finished piece, on a smooth table top, will rock and wiggle around like a fish out of water when given a little nudge.

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I haven’t posted here in quite a while. I’ve been working on a lot of experiments that have mostly ended up enlarging my collection of scrap. This moon face is an idea I’ve had in my head for a couple years, and I finally got around to making it. I think it turned out pretty well. I know it’s not really that original, the image has been around for centuries, but I think maybe the medium might have some originality, that is, forming flat metal into a totally three dimensional crescent moon face.
I have shown the progression here from start to finish, skipping over most of the minute details. I made a hardwood form (seen in picture #4) just for this project to help in forming the anticlastic curvature. Much of the inward hammering was done on this form.
The first four pictures show the beginnings, flat piece, hammering the nose outward, hammering non-nose areas inward. In the fifth image it’s ready for annealing.

In the next three pictures we have the piece after a lot more hammering, ready to anneal again, then, hammering to create the curvature necessary to join it at the back, then, after having hammered every part of it, it’s ready for annealing again.

Then there’s a lot more hammering, refining the form and getting the seam closed. the next picture shows that process at one of the pointed ends. Then it’s ready for silver-soldering. The last picture shows a spring clamp used for holding the seam closed at one of the ends.

After soldering, the seam gets cleaned up, any excess solder removed and sanded and polished smooth. Then the whole thing is planished, then buffed, cleaned, and given a liver of sulfur patina, then rubbed down with #00 steel wool. The last three pictures show the finished piece. It’s 8″ from point to point.

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I started an Etsy shop about a week ago, and put up all my usual pieces, which are way too expensive for the typical Etsy shopper. I did it on the sage advice of someone who is very successful at internet marketing, the idea being that it is very inexpensive advertising. After thinking about it a while, I was able to come up with something that is more in the Etsy price range, it’s a tiny bird, made the same way as my other bird I recently showed here, http://shelbyvision.ganoksin.com/blogs/2009/08/18/hammer-formed-brass-bird-sculpture-how-it-was-made/. Since it’s so small (the bird is 3″ long), there’s much less time involved in making it. Hopefully I can come up with more ideas for inexpensive pieces.

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The first one of this design was made a few years ago, but I just made another one, and it gave me the opportunity to record in pictures how it was made.

In the first six pictures, we have the piece of flat brass sheet, then the initial forming, using stakes and sandbag. In the sixth picture, it has been formed to the point it must be annealed before going any further.

After annealing, it’s a fairly simple but time-consuming task to hammer the piece until the seam comes together, and it can be soldered. After that, a lot of planishing, being very careful not to push the metal in too far, since there’s no way to bring it back out.

Next, the perch is formed. The material is 1/4″ brass rod. The taper was done in a lathe, just an inch or so at a time, to prevent deflection. The picture shows it being filed in a “bench motor” a tool of the musical instrument trade. It has a hollow shaft, which comes in very handy here. After sanding and polishing, the rod is annealed and bent into shape, using a wood stick with a hole to prevent dents or scratches.

Then the final steps. The bird gets a notch filed in the bottom with a 1/4″ round file, then it gets soldered to the perch. Then the finished product.

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I’ve been away for about three weeks, spending all my spare moments redoing some of my website. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at my new gallery page, and try the mouseover on the thumbnails, and the links from the thumbnails, and the Availibility page. If you find any problems, glitches, mistakes, or bad design, please let me know.

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This is the third one of these I’ve made, but it’s been a few years since the last one, and my tools and expertise have improved a lot, so the results are quite a bit better. I love the shape that it starts with; the economy of material is amazing. I don’t know how I came up with it. This would be a good one to make in silver. These first few pictures show the beginning stages: bending into the general shape, closing up  and soldering the neck.

Then we have the shaping of the bottom and top to close up the seams, which are then soldered.

Next, there’s a lot more hammering, first shaping the cone of the base, then flaring it out at the bottom. Then the candle receptacle is shaped, and then flared out at the top.

Voila! the finished product, front view, bottom view, top view.

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This is the second one of these candle holders I’ve made, and since it’s been a couple years since I made the first one, I had a hard time remembering how I did it. This time I took a lot of pictures and took notes, so I’ll have some help when I do the next one. I didn’t show every step here, but I think I show enough to give the general idea of the process. The most difficult and tedious part for this piece is the soldering, especially soldering together the three main pieces, which are a real challenge to hold together in the right position, and keep the seems from opening up when heat is applied.

The first picture shows the five pieces of flat brass ready to be worked on. The next two show the first steps of forming the drip catcher, which had to be done in three stages, annealed between each, to avoid tearing the metal.

The next two pictures show the candle receptacle being made. this actually took several steps, starting with a large ball and a large hole in the wood piece, and gradually going smaller and smaller.

The next three pictures show the forming of the tube part, first by punching the brass down into a long groove to get it started, then by hammering on a flat stake, going over it several times until the tube shape is completely closed. Then, soldering the seam.

The next steps are shaping the extremities on a special wood block, this is done to both ends to get them ready to join together. First two parts are soldered together, just enough to hold them. This is done on both ends. Then the third piece is added and soldered in place, just enough to hold it all together firmly. The third picture shows the setup for doing the twist.

Next, the final shaping of the two ends, which must be done before final soldering. The fourth picture is a view that I thought was so beautiful I had to share it. It’s a shame that it gets completely covered up, so I’ve already started a new project that features this same element, only it will be visible. Stay tuned. The fifth picture shows the clamping setup for soldering the top assembly to the base assembly.

Now, the finished piece. It’s 13″ tall.

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