[TheForge] Copper

[Stephen McGehee]

Jeffery
Cutting
You will have good results with 2 pair of offset compound leverage
snips, get left and right hand.  The cutting edge is below the mass of
the tool and you have excellent control.  over cut a bit if the
complexity requires it to allow finishing with a fine file and
sandpaper.

Finishing
This method has been in use for hundreds of years. When the restoration
of the Statue of Liberty was winding down and significant scaffolding
had been disassembled, they noticed that hundreds of square feet of the
new copper had this brown arrow shaped stain pointing at an opening way
up the structure that the workers had used to relieve themselves rather
than walking down and up 8 zillion steps to the restroom...  Take the
finished piece outside and pee on it until you get the desired level of
brown.  Enroll your visitors in your finishing work, befriend large
dogs.  This relatively slow process allows one a lot of  control over
the consistency of the color.   Scrub well.  Sorry if this offends
anyone, you can't beat the price or delivery time, you don't wait on ups
(except to ask the driver to contribute) and you truly have a secret
recipe, at least from your client...

Attaching
I have used contact cement with excellent results in affixing sheet
copper to counter tops.  Don't breathe the fumes, wicked stuff.
Available in every lumber yard in the country.

Stephen McGehee, Publisher
Irony - the sketchbook of an apprentice blacksmith
P.O. Box 925
Corydon, IN  47112
812-347-0303