[TheForge] Metal working problem...again

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Hi Andy:
I'm real safe from $1600 tools for quite a while.
This really isn't engraving, i'm not sure what to call it...hot chasing? 
I have untold hours in the shaped chisels,chasing tools, stamps and 
punches i use..there must be a couple of hundred by now,, maybe more.
The ones with a larger surface area take several hard blows with my 
hefty TH to sink in hot bronze.
As everybody says, my methodology needs a major change if i want to keep 
the surface features crisp. I only do these batches about once a year, 
so i'll have time to experiment and ruminate on it. Skipped the 
corkscrews this year..don't have the patience to fuss with them.
As my essential tremor gets worse, i have to change how i approach 
work..engraving becomes less of an option..

Andrew Vida wrote:
> Get a Lindsay engraver - about $1600 as I recall.  If you do a lot of 
> this work, it is worth twice that in a heartbeat.  It is in itself a 
> work of art.
> 
> Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>> Might have to come to that, carving the eyes with small chisels and 
>> gravers instead...but i have the eye dies already made and stamped in 
>> the piece at this juncture. Even made a little "W" shaped stamp for the 
>> odd shaped eye lids they have.
>> Sometimes on stuff like this i go back in cold at the end and clean up 
>> the detail by hand, but that's slow.
>>
>> Andrew Vida wrote:
>>> RE: cuttlefish - I think your best bet is to raise the eyes and chase 
>>> the features in afterward.  Sometimes a result is only achieved through 
>>> good old fashioned hard work.  Boo hooty hoo...
>>>
>>> Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>>>> Unfortunately, it mashes across the high points and i'd have to try to 
>>>> grind them off which would take way too long Andy. Good idea though.
>>>> The most problematical one will be the cuttlefish buckle for a marine 
>>>> bio guy. They have really raised bulging eyes right next to the delicate 
>>>> tentacles. Sweating that one. Thinking about wrapping the tentacles in 
>>>> wet rags before spot heating with the torch. Then working over soaked 
>>>> wood with holes drilled to sink the eyes into. It's so easy to blow a 
>>>> piece right at the end! I'm good at that.
>>>>
>>>> Andrew Vida wrote:
>>>>> Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>>>>>> Keziah's Forge wrote:
>>>>>>> Wood end grain - even pine - is far too hard for brass, bronze, copper etc. 
>>>>>>> You can even put a fabric pattern in brass by lining your end grain with it. 
>>>>>> So i've found. But softer material just isn't stiff enough to do the 
>>>>>> job. By spot heating and working over voids in the wood i minimize the 
>>>>>> mushing, but not enough. The pieces are over 1/4" thick in places and 
>>>>>> not very long or wide. There's a lot of relief both in the embossing and 
>>>>>> in the shaping later.
>>>>> 	One possibility is to plan where you will sink the domes and emboss 
>>>>> those areas more deeply than others.  The right differential should just 
>>>>> compensate for the additional deformation of the metal.
>>>>>
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>