[TheForge] tooting my own horn

[Fiorini & Skiles]

Thanks for all of the compliments.  I needed that!

Mike,
 I have to remember that the agonizing stage is actually the planning stage- 
much better wording.

I did try working over stakes, as you did for your maquette.  But like you, 
I just couldn't manipulate the metal, or even stretch my arm over as far as 
I needed to.  I felt like I needed a big wood or steel table with stake 
holes all over it, so I could keep stakes low enough to work that way.

The sandbag worked pretty well, though certainly not efficient.  In the 
Moving Metal book by Adolph Steines, he recommends working over multiple 
layers of soft heavily used carpeting.  I didn't have any available.  I 
probably should go garbage picking for some once these multiple feet of snow 
melt.

I get the 3M unitized wheels and pads from either Grainger or McMaster Carr. 
I think they only sell to businesses.  I started chopping up the red pads to 
make my own improvisational soft buffs for "scouring" the metal.  The soft 
buffs wear down fast and are not cheap, so it seemed easier to just make up 
my own as I needed them.

For annealing, I used the oxy-propane with a rosebud tip.  It's a bit 
wasteful, but I don't have any other options for large work.  I didn't 
bother with quenching the copper.  It gets soft enough even without 
quenching.

My goal was to anneal as little as possible.  I really wanted it to end up 
as work hardened all over.  I wish I could have hammered every last bit of 
the surface for work hardening, but that just wasn't feasible.
-Kirsten

Message: 11
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:20:31 -0400
From: mspencer at tallships.ca (Mike Spencer)
Subject: [TheForge] Re: tooting my own horn
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <200802182220.m1IMKVS05380 at bogus.nodomain.nowhere>


Kirsten> I finished some 24 x 30 inch copper chased & repousséd horse
Kirsten> heads for a commission.

Very nice indeed.

I've done just one piece of that kind but quite a bit smaller, a
macquette for a job never completed.  It wasn't easy, it took a lot of
time in the planning stages (just as you say) and it became clear early
on that doing the full-sized panels (which would have been about 16"
square) would be more difficult yet.

On your web page, you say,

    I started off by working them over sandbags, from the back side,
    with a variety of hammers.

I should take note of that.  I did most of the shaping over stakes --
numerous shapes and several hammers -- and holding the piece in the
right place and orientation was a bit difficult, would have been
moreso with a bigger sheet.  The sandbag method might avoid some of
the hand cramps and misplaced, scarring blows.  I was pondering some
kind of spring suspension to hold the weight of the sheet while my
hand just positioned it but the final job never worked out so that's a
project yet to explore.


    For you metalsmiths, yes I do love the 3M Scotchbrite and unitized
    wheel products for finishing.  I buy them from industrial
    suppliers.

Yeah, so do I, although I have a hard time getting anything that's in
the 3M industrial line.  They seem not to make any effort to push the
abrasive line.  The industrial suppliers don't stock much and aren't
very knowledgeable about the product line.  So mostly I get by with 3M
products in their automotive line.


BTW, did you have an oven for the annealing or did you just use a big
torch out in the open?  I  found annealing pieces of copper sheet with
a propane torch an annoyance for the one panel as well as for some
cookware in heavier gauge.


Nice pieces!
- Mike
-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
                                                           /V\
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^


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