A while back I posted a teaser titled “Anticlastic Extremism”, which didn’t explain much because I lost almost all of the pictures. I did the process again, and posted the end result last week in “Hammer-formed Brass Hen Sculpture”. The second time around, I got the pictures, and now I can do a reasonable job at showing how it was done.
The first four pictures show the first stage of the process. Notice the size of the hammer; it takes a lot of force to do this. If I had a press that’s probably what I would use.
The next three pictures show how much deformation takes place and why it takes six stages of annealing/forming to reach the final goal. The end view shows how the metal folds, and would fold over onto itself if it was forced any further. (I may experiment with the punch tool, making it thicker, to see if it will reduce this problem.) It has to be hammered flat, then annealed, to be ready for the next step.
As I mentioned, it took six stages to get the desired result. The next three pictures show just a couple of those stages and the final stage. It has to be bent further than what is desired in the finished sculpture, since the final forming and planishing will decrease the angle a few degrees.
The next four pictures show some of the tools and forming processes to smooth out and close the form.
Next is the tool used to form the crest or comb, and the result. Then the part that will be the beak is way too long, so it has been marked for shortening. I used a jeweler’s saw and some rotary tools for this. Then there’s the Ball Stake mounted horizontally for forming and smoothing.
The next pictures show the gradual closing of the form, which takes some annealing in between, and then soldering the seam, which requires clamping.
The next two pictures show the forming of the flat part on the bottom. then planishing with the big hammer. I also finished up with a lot of planishing with the small hammer. Then there’s a special planishing tool I made from a piece of steel rod, for planishing in tight places.
Voila! It’s done.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Michael Johnson 03.01.09 at 4:01 pm
Great tutorial!!!
I will have to try some of this at some point. Even if it doesn’t work directly with my own designs, it helps me understand the medium :o)
shelbyvision 03.01.09 at 5:19 pm
Thanks Michael. C’mon in, the water’s warm!
Alex in Welderland 03.02.09 at 11:48 am
I am still amazed by how much work and how much talent goes into your art. The progress pictures are a wonderful tutorial as well. Thank you for sharing! I am fascinated by the process.
Alex
Jerry Fowler 03.02.09 at 2:29 pm
That is righteous! From that one shot I thought you were making a duck not a chicken. What is your horizontal stake holder made from?
shelbyvision 03.02.09 at 2:51 pm
Thank you Jerry. It did have a duckbill for a while, but being a duck was not it’s fate.
The stake holder is two bottom roller brackets from a small bulldozer, something everyone has laying around, I’m sure. The one on the bottom is welded to a piece of 1″ steel rod. It’s plenty strong enough for anything I can do to it. If you enlarge the picture, you can see that there are three nested split steel bushings that I made to allow me to put almost any size rod in there. I also made a piece that lets me use it to hold square rod.
David Huang 03.03.09 at 1:00 pm
Nicely done. Thanks for another great tutorial. Just seeing this reminds me how much fun it is to close up a seem like that. I always enjoyed that part when making spiculums and such.
jason 03.03.09 at 1:10 pm
That’s remarkable! After your first post I was wondering how the metal would buckle with all the initial raising forces. I assumed it would take a number of annealings, but didn’t know it would require six.
How come your brass looks better after who knows how many times under the torch, than mine does after only one?
shelbyvision 03.03.09 at 2:21 pm
Thanks, Jason. I use a commercial product called “Magic Flame Soldering Compound” that I get from Rio Grande. I mix it with rubbing alcohol (not as flammable as denatured), making it very watery, and brush it all over the surface of the brass, on both sides, before annealing. It does a remarkable job of keeping the brass clean. I then pickle the piece in hot sparex solution, to remove the Magic Flame, which is a kind of flux, before working on it again. The Magic Flame is expensive, so to make it go further, I mix it with equal parts of “Cabosil” fumed silica, which is very inexpensive.
jason 03.04.09 at 2:25 am
I haven’t done much in brass, and it’s usually pretty small pieces. I used handy flux (I might have tried boric acid/alcohol too, don’t remember) followed by pickling in bisulfate with pretty poor results. I always seem to get a lovely copper piece out of the pickle. In fact, the brass piece I was working on last night has never seen flux, excepting the solder joins, or pickle. I figured if I’m going to have to buff the crap out of it anyway, I would save myself some effort. Maybe I’ll get some Magic Flame before the next time I work with brass. Thanks for all the good work and info!
fabian ledesma 06.04.09 at 10:12 pm
Great and thanks for shering. Great tutorial. Greatings from Ecuador