In 1982, I wrote a book called The Complete Metalsmith.
The idea was to create a practical benchside reference that would meet my needs as a working
jeweler. Recently it seemed like the time might be right to try it in video. I think the popularity
of that book had to do with its accuracy, thoroughness, and the common-sense way in
which it was organized. All those ingredients are in this tape. We've tried to put together
a presentation that is comprehensive and fast-paced without making it too ponderous.
For organization, I got to thinking about materials. Copper, brass, sterling, gold.
Traditionally, this is the stuff of jewelry making. As I wondered about the things we do to it,
that seemed to present itself as an obvious chapter division. So what can we do to it?
The metal can be cut, the pieces can be joined, the elements can be given volume through
forming methods. A variety of techniques can alter the surface. All these procedures are
used to build a piece of jewelry. At the beginning of each section, you'll see a screen like this.
Each chapter is color-coded with a flag that will move down the right side of your screen
as we proceed. In addition, at the end you'll find an appendix in which I make a few pieces
from start to finish. I think this is important because it synthesizes the little bits and pieces
of instruction that are covered earlier on. A word about video. Sitting there at home,
watching TV, you have a power you wouldn't have if you were here in the studio with me.
That power is concentrated in a single finger, the finger that pushes the buttons.
Remember that you can always pause for a closer look, rewind for a second look,
or fast-forward to skip ahead to a particular section you want to study.
So I hope you enjoy the tape. I'd like to hear from you. Please feel free to write to me,
care of the Brookfield Craft Center. Before we get started, I'd like to say a word about safety.
Nothing I'm going to be showing you is inherently dangerous, but there's always an element of risk.
It's absolutely vital that you understand the techniques, the tools, and the chemicals
that you're working with. Remember to protect your eyes whenever using power equipment such
as when drilling, buffing, or grinding. Wrap-around goggles should also be worn
to protect against splashing whenever you're using strong chemicals. The dusts created in
buffing, grinding, and mixing investment are dangerous to breathe. At the very least,
use a paper mask to block these out. Far better, use a properly fitting soft rubber
mask equipped with the appropriate filters and canisters. These can filter out both dusts
and vapors. Keep the mask in a sealed plastic bag when not in use, and replace filters when
the draw feels restricted. Protect your hearing by using any of the several styles of earplugs
shown here. This is especially important when working with the protracted noise of motors
or the ringing sounds of hammering. When mixing or working with strong chemicals,
wear protective clothing to minimize exposed skin surface. Never wear loose clothing like
scarves and ties, and always keep long hair pinned up when in the studio. Never eat or smoke in the
studio. The traces of compounds on your fingers are likely to be tested. Throughout the program,
we'll use these safety alert symbols to indicate procedures which require particular attention to
safety. As a pendant, this leaves something to be desired. Clearly, I'm going to have to cut it. I
could use scissors or heavy shears like these, but they're only appropriate for squares and
rectangles. Far more versatile is the jeweler's saw frame. Sawing is one of the most basic and
at the same time most versatile techniques in the jeweler's bag of tricks. One of the things I like
about it is that it requires only very simple pieces of equipment. We'll start with the saw
frame. They all look basically alike. They have a set screw at each end and another adjustment
screw up here. The principal difference between one frame and another is the size or depth,
and that refers to the distance in the saw blade back here. This one, for instance, is a two inch
saw. This is a four and a half inch saw. The reason you might need a large one like this is
because it's this distance that determines how far you can cut into a piece of metal. Most jewelry
work uses a small saw frame. Another important piece of equipment is the saw blade itself. This
is a very small, precision piece of hardened steel. In this case, I'm using a small size and
there are a dozen of them here, so you can see they're quite fragile. The size of the saw blade
is determined by the thickness of the metal on which you're working. The third and in some ways
most important component in the sawing process is this piece of wood that sticks out of the bench
toward me called the bench pin. Jewelry making differs for most activities in that you don't
work on a table so much as you work in front of it. The active zone here is this space. The bench
pin as it projects out provides my point of reference and my single point of contact.
First step in proper sawing is to get the blade well attached into the frame. When you look at
a blade, if you look up close, you can see that the teeth have a certain direction. The teeth should
always point toward the handle. If you can't see it, you can also test this by rubbing on fabric.
You'll find the teeth will grab in one direction and not in the other. So the first step is to lay
the blade into the frame, attach it at one end. I'll then adjust the length so that the end of
the blade just reaches the gripping plate and at that point I'll tighten the frame. Now using a
good deal of force, I'll lean against the frame. Now we'll squeeze it together and when it's in
that squeezed or closed position, I'll then grip the blade behind the plate and make it finger tight.
When the blade is properly gripped, you can ping it with a fingernail and it should make a high
pitch noise like that. If you get a dull thud or ponging sound, you should stop and retighten the
blade before you try to saw. The sawing process itself should be relaxed, soothing. It's a gentle
process and that might sound peculiar when you first start out because there's a tendency to
clutch and jerk at it. But if you persevere, you'll find it can be very smooth and lyrical. There are
a few steps or key points to keep in mind and I'll list them as if they're hard and fast rules. In
fact, what's most important is that you get a smooth natural combination of all these factors
happening at once. The first step is what we've just talked about that the blade must be tight.
Second is that you should position yourself in front of the bench so that your shoulder is lined
up with the bench pin. Don't sit down at the bench pin as if it was your dinner plate. Instead,
you'll sit off to the side. Since I'm right-handed, I'll actually sit to the left of the pin so that
my working shoulder is in line. The result of that is a more relaxed arm muscle. Also, as part of
that, I'll adjust my height. If you're sitting up too high, you'll find you have a cramp right here
on your wrist and that makes the process painful and tedious and usually will result with broken
blades. Instead, you'll sit down low. The next step requires that the metal be well supported.
This is where the bench pin comes in handy. Jewelers tend to personalize their bench pins. I like this
keyhole design, which gives me a round working area, but you can cut it to any shape you like.
The advantage here is that I can work on metal that is well supported on both sides. You'll
notice that with my left hand here, I'll reach around the metal and hold it on both edges.
Because the bench pin is flat, I can swivel and pivot as necessary. Another important point is
that the blade should remain vertical all the time. The proper stroke is going to be like this,
a steady, smooth up and down stroke. You want to avoid working at an angle like this and also
avoid the tendency to rock like that. And finally, and I would say most importantly,
the hand holding the saw frame should be extremely relaxed. In fact, to say that it's holding is an
overstatement. Cradling is probably a better term. The frame is just barely supported in my grip.
You put all that together and it looks like this. Once you've learned how to control the saw blade,
it's important that you make a line that you can see well and that's relatively permanent. There
are a couple of ways to do it. One possibility is this material, a commercial die, comes in this
jar with an applicator brush and dries very quickly. Another version that achieves the same
result is white shoe polish. Or the method that I like uses label making stock. This is a sticky
backed paper. One brand name is Crack and Peel for instance. You can buy this at office supply
stores or quick copy houses. I like this because it's a real paper surface, holds pencil well,
and can be erased. That's what I've used for the example. There are a number of times when you
might want to saw out two identical pieces. A good way to do that is to use tabs to lock the two
pieces together. After making those four cuts in both pieces of metal, I'll now separate them and
complete the V in one unit. And either one could be used. I'll use the top unit. Now having cut out
these triangular pieces, I'll put the sections back together and with pliers fold up the tabs
in the lower unit. These are then pressed down. Now we'll hold the two pieces from slipping in
any direction while I do the piercing. After the interior cuts are made, then I'll cut away the
outside and clean up the final project. The next step is to drill a hole in each one of these
sections. In order to locate the hole, I'll start by center punching. The effect here is to make a
little dimple in the surface of the metal. It doesn't have to be deep. This tiny crater will
prevent the drill bit from wandering. The hole can be drilled with a hand drill or more typically
with a flexible shaft machine. The flexible shaft machine or flex shaft is a popular and
versatile tool. Its small precision motor is generally operated through a foot rheostat like
those used with sewing machines. The harder you push the pedal, the faster the motor turns,
usually going at about 14,000 rpm at top speed. The flex shaft is used for drilling,
grinding, carving and polishing. Goggles should always be worn when using this machine. When
sawing an interior area in a process called piercing, I first loosen the blade and thread
the object onto it. Then the blade is tightened as before. To remove, the blade is released from
the gripping plate below and the process is repeated. Interior spaces are cut first and
then the metal around the pieces are sawn away except where the tabs are holding. As a final
step, I'll cut off the tabs.
Even if this was going to be a pin, I'd have to find some way to attach a finding to the back.
There are two approaches to this, one way that uses heat and one that doesn't. Every once in a
while it's possible to make a piece of jewelry out of a single piece of metal, but far more
typical is the case where you join two or three or sometimes dozens of pieces together. There is a
family of connections called cold connections, which is not what happens when you put your tongue
on the flagpole in winter, but rather cases where pieces of metal are mechanically wrapped over one
another in ways that do not involve the heat of soldering. I'm going to show some standard devices
in this family of cold connections, but before we get to that, I want to make the point that cold
connections are all around us. By looking around, you'll find many examples that can be adapted to
your work as a jeweler, for instance here. Typical example and the most familiar one to all of us is
the paperclip. Another familiar example is the staple. Here's a case where this potato peeler is
held together without a soldered joint. Right here, the metal curls over and wraps onto itself. It
makes a surprisingly strong joint. This can opener is held together with a rivet at this end and a
tube rivet at this end. Examples of cold connections can turn up where you least expect them. For
instance, the mechanism inside this toy is held together with tabs which, like fingers, reach
through holes and press down on the top plate to hold it all together. As basic as they are, tabs
present an opportunity for design enrichment as well. In this case, for instance, I want to hold
a piece of copper onto a piece of brass and I'm going to use tabs which will become a part of the
design. For this piece, I've cut out triangular tabs and bent them up at a 90 degree angle.
On this copper unit, I have corresponding slots so that the two, if I've measured correctly,
will slide together like that. I'll then set the piece onto the bench anvil and press the tab over,
the intention being just to take it away from vertical and then with a rawhide mallet, tap it
on like that. The idea of a rivet is really very simple. It's kind of like a nail with a head on
both ends. The rivet, by definition, is a rod or a length of material that goes through sections
and then is upset or bulged over on both the top and the bottom and that makes the clamping action
that holds it together. I'm going to do a standard rivet here. Any piece of metal can become a rivet.
In this case, I'm using a piece of wire that goes through holes that I've already drilled in these
two pieces of copper and brass. It's critical that the wire make a very snug fit as it goes
through. If the wire is so small that it wiggles in the hole like this, it won't make a sound rivet.
A wire of the correct diameter fills the hole completely. And now I will snip that
and then file it. The snippers always leave a pointed end. We don't want that, so I'll file it
off till it's square. At this point, I'm also paying particular attention to the length of the rivet.
The idea is to have half the diameter of the wire projecting on each side. In other words,
if you were using a wire a millimeter in diameter, you'd want to have half a millimeter of metal
extending out here and half a millimeter extending in that direction. I'll be working on the surface
plate or bench anvil, which is a small piece of polished steel, and I'll be using a riveting
hammer. This is a small cross-peen hammer. Cross-peen refers to this wedge-shaped end.
That allows me to control the direction in which the metal will move when it's hit. I want to be
careful that I don't press it all the way down. That leaves too much rivet showing on this side
and nothing on the underside. Instead, I'll raise the workpiece so it's hovering above the bench
plate, allowing a little bit of the rivet to project below and a little bit above. I'll then
strike it with the cross-peen hammer. Obviously, force is not necessary. This hammer, though it
looks like a toy, is a very effective tool. It's marksmanship that counts. As I strike,
the round wire is changed in shape and becomes an oval. The next step is to turn the whole
assembly 90 degrees and hit crossway to what I was doing before. So you might think of it
as making an X on the top of the wire. Again, this process is called upsetting. That word
refers to the activity of pressing metal down on itself. Having created that upset head or the
mushroom head on one side, I'll now flip it all over and repeat the process. Typically, rivets
or other cold connections are done late in the process. Here, of course, I'm just working on
sample pieces, but if I was making a finished piece of jewelry, I would have probably worked
these pieces all the way through the conclusion. That is, stones would be set, the patina, the
color would be in place, the edges would be smooth, and so on. That's usually done because
it's easier to work on the pieces when they're separate than it is after they're assembled.
Because the piece is nearing completion, it's a good idea to avoid extraneous hammer marks,
which will be scars that have to be worked off later with sandpaper and polishing. And I do that
by anchoring my hand out here. Rather than have my hand free to move around, it's pivoting. The
heel of my hand is resting on the bench so that this becomes a very robotic, machine-like activity
here. Once the rivet has been properly pressed down and the two pieces of metal are well joined,
then I'll flip the hammer over and use this flat face. That has the effect of smoothing out the
little lines that are left by the cross-peen end of the hammer. The rivet can also be finished by
polishing or shaping with a beading tool. Now you'll notice in this case that I've drilled
additional holes in the copper, but not yet in the brass. The first thing to notice is that you
always have to have more than one rivet, because one rivet will still allow pieces to rotate,
unless, of course, that's what you want. It would be tempting then to originally hold the
pieces together and drill a bunch of holes. Not a good idea. Even when you try to be very careful,
it seems inevitable that somewhere in the process between the second and third hole,
or the fifth and the sixth, somewhere the two pieces slide a little bit, and all it takes is
a little bit to throw you off. The effect then is you get one or two rivets in position, and when
you go to put in that next one, the holes don't line up, and it's a very difficult situation from
which to recover. So instead, I'll drill as many holes as I want in one piece, and a single hole
in the bottom sheet. A rivet here still allows the top to rotate. I'll drill a second hole,
opposite the first, and form a rivet there. Now the pieces are locked in position, and the rest
of the holes can be drilled. It's hard to overestimate the value of rivets. Not only can they be used to
join pieces of metal without the introduction of heat, but they're handy for cases where heat is
not an option. For instance, when you're attaching wood or shell or stone. What I've demonstrated is
a very straightforward and usual case, two flat pieces being joined, but a lot of times you'll
have to come up with a particular situation because of the shapes with which you're working.
Here's an example. In this case, I fabricated a cap out of sterling, which I'm joining onto a
leather strap for a necklace end, and I want to put a rivet right down through here, but it's
impossible for me to set this down on a flat surface because of the two wire bands on either
end of the cap. If I strike it here, there's no resistance beneath, and hence there will be no
rivet head. In a case like this, I have first drilled a hole and fed a wire through it, and then
I've gripped a stamping tool here in the vice for the temporary anvil. You can see when I set
this down that the rivet head is in contact with the anvil. From here, riveting proceeds as usual.
Another variation on rivets is the tube rivet. In that case, a length of tubing is substituted
for the solid rod used to join pieces of metal together. An advantage of the tube rivet is the
fact that it takes less stress to curl the edges over. For that reason, it's recommended for delicate
situations, as in the setting of an enamel or a shell. Another advantage of the tube rivet is that
there's a perforation that runs through the join. This can be used to attach a moving part, or for
instance, as in this can opener, it makes a nice place for a thong. The making of a tube rivet exactly
parallels the standard rivet that we looked at earlier. A length of tubing is sawn off. Again,
it should project about a half a diameter on either side of the sheet. It's then laid into position,
centered, and instead of hammering, any sharp tool like this scribe can be used to begin the
curling over process. The scribe is laid gently into the tube and rotated like this, which has
the effect of curling it outward. After one side is started, you flip it over and work on the other
side, and you'll need to go back and forth three or four times anyway. You'll be able to see the
edge as it curls outward and grips the two pieces of metal together. I'll then use a hammer to finish
off the joint and set the rivet in its final position. The tube rivet is finished by pinching
it between a pair of dapping punches like this. A light tap is all that's needed. Whether you work
in a large scale or small scale with precious metals or base metals, I think you'll find lots
of uses for cold connections. At the same time, a lot of jewelry making involves soldering, and
sooner or later you're going to have to learn how to control it. So that's where we should turn our
attention next. Silver soldering like that is perhaps the single most important technique a
jeweler can learn. That kind of joint, one in which solder is flowed into the structure of the
material, combines the delicate handling necessary for the jewelry scale with tremendous strength.
The joint that I just made is in fact as strong as the parent metal. Metals are made up of
crystals, and it helps me to understand what's going on on the crystalline level. Metal is made
up of a geometric lattice of crystals represented here by cubes. When heat is applied, the crystals
move apart creating microscopic spaces. If the metal is heated to its melting point, the crystals
have moved so far apart that the bonds holding them are broken. In soldering, we use a material
formulated to be fluid within the temperature range where there is a space between the crystals.
In the soldering process, the metal is heated until the solder melts and is then drawn into
the spaces between the crystals by capillary action. Proper soldering requires that the metal
be perfectly clean and that the pieces be fitted so that there are no gaps. The soldering process
requires the interaction of three factors, flux, solder, and a heat source. When metal is heated,
it tends to combine with oxygen, forming metallic oxides. These are gray films which
prohibit the free flow of solder. Flux is a chemical that absorbs oxygen before it has a
chance to combine with the metal. What I've been using here is a white paste flux, but there are
other options you should be aware of. Another paste flux that lends itself to base metals because
it's very heavy duty, does a good job of absorbing oxygen, is a black variety. The other side of the
family are liquid fluxes. These have the advantage of application. They can be brushed on, you can
dip the piece into them, or they can be put into a spray jar like this and spritzed onto the piece
throughout the soldering operation. To make solder, the parent metal is mixed with small amounts of
other metals in specific proportions to determine the flow point of the alloy. Zinc and copper are
added to silver to create these three commonly used grades of silver solder. The range of torches
available can be overwhelming to a newcomer to jewelry making, but they fall into two categories.
Some torches like this one use atmospheric air combined with a fuel. In this case, the fuel is
propane. Another popular version is the torch I'm using here called a prestolite or acetylene
atmosphere torch. The other family uses bottled oxygen to increase the temperatures available
while simultaneously allowing for a smaller flame. Again, several gases may be used. Oxygen torches
are especially handy for small work and repairs. Any torch can produce three types of flame. In a
neutral flame like this, the amount of fuel is matched by the available oxygen, resulting in
complete combustion. The fuel-rich reducing flame is used to prevent oxidation. The pale violet-colored
oxidizing flame can generally be used. The torch is one of the basic tools in a jewelry studio,
and its use should be thoroughly understood. If you're not comfortable with the operation of
your torch, consult a welding supply company for help. Check the threaded fittings for leaks
by brushing them with soapy water. Tanks should be secured in a stable upright position. Keep paper
towels and other combustibles away from the soldering area. When you're finished for the day,
close the valves and bleed the hoses. Let's watch the process again. I'll apply flux and then lay
the solder chips so that they span the joint. The flux uses water as a vehicle to create a
consistency that can be brushed, and the first step is to evaporate that water away. You'll notice
that I keep the torch well above the metal. If I come in too fast too soon, the rapid boiling
of the water will throw the solder chips away, and I'll have to reposition them. When the flux
has been converted to a white scale, I can lower the torch. The torch I'm using here is a prestolite.
Another chemical that's part of the soldering process is called pickle. This is a granular
substance that's mixed with water and kept warm at the bench side. During the soldering operation,
the metal is covered with oxide film and a flux residue called flux glass. Either of these can
be removed by abrasion, but that process is at best tedious and also wasteful of the material.
Instead, we'll drop the piece into the pickle, and if the pickle is fresh and warm, after a
couple minutes, both of these surfaces will be removed. When pulling the piece out of the
pickle, I'll give it a quick dip in water, and here you can see a piece immediately after
soldering and what it looks like when it comes out of the pickle. The black surface is the oxide
film and the green is the flux residue. There's a lot to soldering, and because it's a fundamental
part of jewelry making, let's review. The metal should be clean and the parts well fitted. Remember
to apply flux. Place the solder so that it touches both pieces being joined. Start with
the torch high and evaporate the liquid in the flux. If the chips move, slide them back. Heat
all parts so that they reach soldering temperature at the same time, and when you're finished,
clean the work in pickle. Because of its control, soldering is used for most jewelry applications,
but there's another way to join metal with heat called fusing. In that case, the metal is heated
to the point where its skin begins to melt. When it becomes fluid, the services of all the pieces
involved flow together, co-mingle, and make a strong joint. The result is usually rounded edges
and an interesting texture. First step is to apply flux. In this case, I don't have to start off slow
because I don't have to worry about solder chips flying around. Remember, there's no solder being
used here. What I'm particularly paying attention to is that all the pieces reach the same temperature
at the same time. My indicator for this is color. Now I start to see a red color, and I'm going to
focus on one area of the piece. You see the way it turns silvery there. That means the skin has
become molten. And right at that point, right there in the corner, fusion has taken place. In this area,
these two pieces are now joined. Now I'll move up and do this joint. That's now been done. That's
been done. I could stop now. At this point, the metal is still intact. It looks just like it did
before. Usually with fusion, though, I want to go a little further because I'm doing this for the
effect of textures and irregular edges. I'll create this by making the metal molten and then
removing the heat. This heat and chill reaction causes the metal to buckle and creates a surface
texture, which I might call orange peel. I continue heating and cooling until I get the
look I want. After fusing, the piece is cleaned and pickled. So that's an overview of the most
common ways of joining metal. Cold connections, such as tabs and rivets, and the use of heat
for soldering and fusion. If I can't make a pin out of this, maybe I'll try this. Wire can be
bent and shaped with a hammer. So far, we've been talking about sheet metal, but of course,
jewelry is made of wire, too. You can buy wire in a range of sizes, but it's nice to be able to make
what you need just when you need it. The equipment for this is very simple. It consists of a draw
plate, a piece of hardened steel perforated with a series of holes of decreasing size. Each hole
is tapered, being smaller at the front, slightly larger at the back, funnel-shaped. The draw
plate is clamped into a vice, and the wire is pulled through each successive hole. In this case,
we'll be making round wire. With a different draw plate, it would be possible to make half round
or square or wire of any other cross-section. The first step is to file the taper on the end
of the wire so that it will fit through a hole smaller than the existing diameter. The wire is
fed into a hole where it makes a snug fit and pulled through with these heavy-duty pliers
called draw tongs. You'll notice that the handle is curled to increase grip, and the jaws are
coarsely serrated. The wire is pulled through with slow, even strokes. You'll notice several
things happening. Perhaps the most obvious is that the wire is getting longer. This is
because it's getting smaller, and of course, no material is being lost. You might also see
that it's shiny. This is the result of a burnishing action of the steel plate on the wire. The other
factor that is maybe less obvious is that the wire is becoming work-hardened. The stresses
of compaction are causing a tension at the crystalline level. There will come a time,
if I continue drawing, when the wire, rather than pull through, will snap off. That means
the wire has reached its limits of malleability, and before I can continue, I'll need to anneal it.
To anneal the wire, I'll heat it up to about two-thirds its melting point. Annealing wire
is a little tricky because the mass is large, but each individual thread is delicate and
easily melted. You'll notice that I secured the coil by wrapping the ends of the wire
around. I'd either do this or wrap it with a piece of fine wire, preferably copper or
stainless steel, and my selection has to do with the fact that I want to go from here
directly into the pickle. If you were to use binding wire, you'd want to be sure to unwrap
the binding wire before putting it into the hot pickle, or else the metal would become
copper-plated. At this point, the metal is smaller than it was before, still shiny, and
considerably more malleable. Remember, if you're going to continue drawing, be sure
that the wire is carefully dried. The draw plate is made of steel and will rust if exposed
to moisture. An interesting way to give unique shape to wire is with the use of a swage.
This is a piece of tool steel that I've shaped with saw and file, and then polished, hardened
and tempered. I'll grip it in the vise, lay a piece of annealed wire in the groove and
strike it with a planishing hammer. As simple as it is, even bending wire has a few do's
and don'ts. Don't, for instance, use sharp tools that will put scars and gashes in the
wire. Don't use pliers that have serrated jaws. The best tools are your hands. They're
soft and squishy and won't leave any marks on the wire, and of course they have infinite
control. There are times, however, when they're just not strong enough and you'll need to
turn to the leverage of pliers. Small curves are bent with the round-nose pliers. For larger
curves, we use ring-forming pliers. Here we have one flat jaw and one half-round jaw.
The curved jaw is put on the inside of the curl, and the flat jaw touches only at the
tangent. To make a square bend or straighten out a curve, I use square-nose pliers. Sometimes
a small pinch is all it's needed. For cutting, you can use wire cutters or a more delicate
straight-end cutter that leaves a nicer-looking end, or toenail clippers. One of the familiar
uses of wire is as jump rings. These are small rings that make a bridge, or jump, from one
element to another. For instance, from a pendant to a necklace, or from one link of a chain
to another. It's possible to buy jump rings, but most hand craftsmen make their own as
they're needed. The process could hardly be more simple. I'm wrapping a piece of wire
around, in this case, a wooden dowel. Other mandrels would include nails, knitting needles,
or pieces of wire. Some people like to saw the rings while they're still on the mandrel.
I usually prefer to slide it off. The cut-off rings are allowed to drop into the sweeps
drawer, where they can be easily retrieved. Forging, the process of shaping metal with
a hammer, requires annealed metal, a hammer, and a solid work surface. I'm working here
on a large anvil, which has the advantage of stability because of its weight. Many metalsmiths,
however, use a piece of railroad track, or a similar block of steel. Hammers are available
in a boggling array of sizes and styles. It might be easier to understand if we think
in terms of families. Mallets are used to bend metal without thinning it. They can be
made of rawhide, like this one, or wood, rubber, or plastic. One face on the planishing hammer
is perfectly flat, and the other is slightly domed. Both faces are mirror polished. The
planishing hammer is used to smooth out the surface of metal. In speaking of hammers,
we refer to the face and the peen, or back end. This one is a ball peen hammer. The one
I'll be using for forging is called a cross peen. We saw this shape before in the riveting
hammer. A lot of the character of forging comes from a plane change, like this, where
it goes from vertical to horizontal. I'm going to make one of those now. I'll use the cross
peen running across the axis of the copper that will squeeze the metal that way. There's
no directional force coming this direction or this direction, so all the metal that's
there is being pushed that way or that way. To minimize rolled over edge, I strike as
close to the center as possible, and I'll work from both sides. And before the grooves
get too deeply pushed down, I'll flip the hammer and smooth them out with the flat face
of the hammer. What makes this shape so appealing is that a surface becomes an edge, and by
the time you're there, you realize that you're in the middle of another form over here. So
there's this kind of hypnotic blending of this element, which overlaps or splices into
this element. To achieve that, I've hammered about two-thirds of the way up the rod. Now
I'll flip it over and do the same kind of hammering and run from here down to about
here. Final finishing can then be done on the horn of the anvil. And there it is. Earlier
we saw the way to file a point on wire. When using heavy stock, making a taper is best
done with a hammer. The logic is pretty simple. I'll start up here and strike a series of
blows with a cross-peen across the axis of the wire. After going all the way to the end,
I'll come back, but not quite as far up the length as I did before, and repeat the process,
each time working on all four sides. The next time, I'll only come up to here and then hammer
that down. That means that a point here would be struck once, just on the first pass. A
point, say, down here would be struck maybe five or six times, once on each successive
pass. Because it's been hit more times, this area is smaller, and the result is a taper.
You'll notice that it's going to grow in length. This sample was the same size as this
before I started. It's very important that the wire be kept straight all the time. You
see it has a little curve, so before I continue, I'll straighten that curve out. That's four
sides all starting up here. Now I'm going to start about here. I'm working on copper,
which is an extremely malleable metal, but even copper gets work hardened with this much
stress. It's a bad time for me to stop and anneal it now. If I continue, not only is
the work getting harder, but the edges are starting to crack. You might just begin to
see it here. After annealing, remember to dry the piece thoroughly so you don't get
any water on the anvil. As I get down to this thinner section, I need to use lighter blows.
If I would strike as strongly as I was at the beginning, I could possibly pinch right
through. That would certainly make the stock so rectangular, hitting it real hard here,
it would be hard to recover on this side. When the objective is a round taper, I go
at it the same way by first creating a square and drawing the taper while it's square, and
then turn it on an axis like that and strike down on the corner. Of course, what you're
doing is flattening the corner you can see and also the corner directly opposite it.
Flip it 90 degrees and hit the other two edges. The result of this is an octagonal section,
and from here the piece can be simply turned and planished. All the work on a graceful
piece like this one has been done with a hammer, and that's the idea of forging. Maybe this
would work better as a pin if I put some pattern on it. I could use a hammer and punch. Probably
the most direct way to texture metal is to strike it. In this example, assorted ball
peen hammers have been used. Here, a textured hammer face leaves its mark. A cross peen
offers many possibilities. Here, I've used a scribe. Patterns can be found all around
us. This texture was achieved by pounding the metal onto concrete, and here by pounding
onto cast iron. Another embellishment technique uses the rolling mill. The idea behind roll
printing is really very basic. We're going to take a soft material, I'll demonstrate
with a piece of clay, and any textured surface. Here, I'll use some sanding film. Some kind
of pressure is used to push these together, and when they're peeled apart, the texture
has been imprinted or transferred onto the softer material. For our purposes, the source
of the pressure will be the rolling mill. The rolling mill is a precise and expensive
piece of equipment. Its primary use is to thin sheet metal, but it can also be used
in patterning and in the reduction of wire. The rollers are of polished steel and require
special care to remain smooth and parallel. They should be protected from moisture when
not in use. Hardened steel should never come into contact with the rollers because it will
scar them and knock them out of true. Let me illustrate this way. I'm going to take
a piece of annealed sterling and some nylon gauze. The idea is to get this texture pressed
into the sterling. Now, I could shove it through the rolling mill like this, and it would work.
It would also do a number on the rollers. To prevent that, I'm going to protect them
by adding to the sandwich this piece of brass. I choose brass because it's considerably tougher
than sterling. In this way, all the push is going to be going into the sterling, making
it clearer and therefore darker impression. I can set this in either side up. It doesn't
make any difference in the result. Now, I'll send this through and adjust the tension by
trial and error until I get it to where it's difficult to roll through, but doesn't require
two people. You can see that the gauze, for one thing, has been pressed and can't be used
again. The brass has very little surface texture, and the sterling has a nice, deep pattern
etched into it. It shows up pretty well now. If I were to oxidize it, it would be even
more highly contrasted. Let's see another example. In this case, I've got a template,
which I've made by piercing a sheet of brass. I'll be using polished sterling, which is,
of course, annealed, and regular Kleenex. The sandwich goes together like before. There's
the template, the paper, which is heavily stressed. Look at that. What you'll see is
that the polished sterling was able to remain polished where it crossed over the star. In
other words, there was nothing pressing on it when it was in that open spot. In between
the stars, the paper was pressed into the sterling, and it gives this wonderful, rich,
sandblasted look. You can buy commercial stamps, but the selection is somewhat limited.
I think it's a good idea to know how to make your own. I'm going to make a stamp that will
create this arrow image. The starting point is a piece of tool steel. First, I'll file
the top end, or striking end, of the tool, like this. Next, I'll thin the bottom end,
the part where the image will be. It's important that this is smooth and exactly perpendicular
to the shank. I'll test it by making it stand up. After refining with sandpaper, I'll touch
it with a bit of dye, and then draw the image on. The shape is then achieved through the
use of a saw and vinyls.
I'll use a lump of clay to check the tool. It's worth taking time to make sure you get
the image just right, because when properly heat-treated, this tool will last for generations.
In order to convert this soft steel into hardened steel, we use a specific heat treatment called
hardening and tempering. The two words refer to two steps of an operation, and really should
be used both together, but sometimes for shortcuts we talk about hardening or tempering. In fact,
we never do one without the other. The first step, hardening, involves heating the steel
until it goes through a critical change. Its crystalline structure will convert from one
shape to another shape. The new shape is much tougher than the first. In order to freeze
the action at that point, we need to have a controlled cool-down or quenching. If it
cools too rapidly, there are stresses developed, which will cause the tool to crack. If it
cools too slowly, it will convert from one phase back to its other, from the hard back
to the soft. So we need to find some material that will draw the heat away pretty fast but
not too fast, and the material we use for that is oil. This steel is called an oil-hardening
steel. It's been formulated specifically to work with quenching oil. Now, commercially
they get very complicated about this, using oils of specific viscosity, heated up to a
specific temperature. In our case, we don't need to be quite that critical. I'm using
motor oil at room temperature. I'll be hardening just the bottom inch or so of the tool. My
indicator is color. I'll be heating until it's a bright, luminous red. Another indicator,
if you're not confident about reading color, is the fact that the steel, when it reaches
critical change, when it goes through that phase change, loses its magnetism. So you
can keep a magnet close at hand and just touch the tool to it. If it does not pick up the
magnet, you'll know it's at the right temperature. That's approaching the right color, and now
I'm going to very quickly move over to the oil and stir with the tool. The stirring is
important. If I plunge the tool in without stirring, it's immediately surrounded by an
envelope of hot oil, and that defeats the purpose. By stirring, I'm constantly bringing
it into contact with fresh, cool oil. I'll keep it there until it has cooled sufficiently
to hold. Clean it off, and then check it. At this point, the steel should be very hard.
It's also brittle, but let's deal with the hardness first. I'll rub a file against it.
This is the same file that a minute ago was used to shape the tool. Now, the file will
not cut in. There's a high-pitched, glassy sound. Compare that sound with that. This
is the back end. It's not been hardened. This is the tool end. You can hear the difference.
If it did not have that sound, I'd repeat the process I just went through. Something
to be careful about is heating it to the right color, but then taking too long to get it
over to the oil. As I said, at this point, the steel is very hard but brittle, so brittle
that if I was to strike it, chances are it would shatter. This would be disappointing
since I just spent so long making the tool. It would also be dangerous. In order to relieve
that brittleness, I'll go through a second heat-treating operation called tempering.
The tempering operates at about a third the temperatures that we just saw. In order to
read the correct temperatures, I need to clear the metal. It has a gray scale, and I'm going
to get rid of that with sandpaper. The hardening process that went to bright red operates at
about a little over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The tempering that we're about to go into
operates between 400 and 600 degrees. For that reason, you'll want to use a small torch,
a gentle flame, and go slow. I think if there's a single common problem, it's in running right
through this process and missing it because it happens like that. Last time, I moved the
flame around. This time, I'm going to keep it constant, about an inch and a quarter,
inch and a half away from the tip. Nothing's going to happen for a few seconds, and then
you're going to see a rainbow of color. There it is. You'll see blue in the center. Next
to it is plum, followed by brown, followed by a straw or bronzy yellow. It's that bronzy
yellow that I'm going to watch. As I keep the torch here, that color is going to crawl
toward the tip. It's also crawling up the handle, but I'm not too worried about that.
I'm watching the one that's going toward the tip, and when the straw gets to the tip,
then again, moving quickly, I'll quench the tool. Now, the yellow itself doesn't mean
anything. It's the fact that it indicates a certain temperature. At that temperature,
there are changes going on inside the steel that relieve the brittleness without sacrificing
hardness. If I were to wait too long, or the longer I wait, the more sacrifice there is.
That is the greater flexibility, but the less hardness. There you can see we've got yellow
on the tip, which is maximum hardness, but enough flexibility to make an impact tool
like this. Behind that is brown, then plum, then blue. If I had continued heating a little
bit further, those colors would have advanced to the tip. The plum and the blue have the
most flexibility, but at the greatest expense in hardness.
The most common chemical for darkening sterling involves the use of a chemical called liver
of sulfur, or hydrosulphurated potash. This is familiar to most jewelers as that rotten
egg-smelling stuff. It's usually sold as a gravel. You mix it up with water. A little
goes a long way. The size of a pea is right for, say, a cup of water. I like to use warm
water because it dissolves faster. If you drop a piece of sterling into that mix and
leave it for two, three, four minutes, it will turn black, or at least a dark gray.
But you should know that there are a number of beautiful colors that come along the way.
Let me demonstrate those. The first color is a golden or bronzy color. It's a little
darker, just showing brown, for instance, in that corner. Next, we'll start to see
a vermilion, a bright red. I'm just getting a hint of that in the center. These colors
are a result of temperature of the liquid, cleanliness of the metal, and the amount of
time that the liver sulfur is allowed to remain on the metal. Just beginning to see the color
patterns developing up here in the corner. Another very popular surface is verdigris,
this chalky green color that's so popular on copper and brass. You can buy green patina
liquid ready to use, or you can make your own. To use, set the piece in a warm place
and spray until the surface is uniformly wet. Allow the work to air dry. Repeat the process
three to six times. This surface is not recommended when the work will be handled or worn. Real
finishing starts when you first buy your piece of metal. Don't put in any marks you don't
want, and you won't have to spend the time later taking them out. That means handle your
metal carefully. In storage, put a sheet of paper between pieces, particularly precious
metal, and when you're traveling, don't let it bang around in your toolbox. A file is
your first line of defense in removing scratches. The teeth on a file are directional. They
point away from the handle. That means that you cut on the push stroke. You'll find your
files will last longer if you get into the habit of lifting slightly on the return. When
the file gets clogged up, take the time necessary to clean it. You can use a file card or just
a piece of copper rubbed this way will pick out the little pieces of metal that are lodged
between the teeth. A few minutes spent cleaning the file will actually save you a much longer
time using it. After a file, I turn to sandpaper, and I like to wrap my sandpaper around sticks
like this. You can cut these yourself or at the lumber yard, you'll find them sold as
lattice. The advantage of having the paper on a stick is that it improves leverage. I
can push harder, and that means I can cut deeper and therefore faster. The reason I
like this size stick is that it mimics the shape and feel of the file. A typical progression
would be to file, and then without altering the position of my torso, set that down, go
right into the sanding stick, and I can move down the progression from coarse to fine grits
of paper. And in that way, because I haven't changed position each time or altered my approach
to the metal, I get a much more consistent and therefore attractive surface. Remember
in sandpapers, the higher numbers are finer papers. You might think of anything in the
100s, that is 120, 140, 160, as being a coarse paper. 200s are medium, 300s are fine, 400
is extra fine, and a 600 paper like this is very fine. I usually follow this with a buffing
stick. This is another piece of wood onto which I've glued a little strip of leather.
This leather is then treated by rubbing it with a polishing compound, triple E or bobbing
or white diamond for instance. And again, the same stroke. You'd be surprised how effective
this can be. Going right through sandpapers all the way to a 600, and then going to this,
will give a high bright shine. And then of course you'd follow up with a rouge cloth.
There are times when you'll need a larger surface, and this is a handy way to deal with
that. I've taken a sheet of sandpaper and glued it onto a piece of plexiglass. Masonite
also works well. You can use a liquid glue, but spray adhesive is ideal for this. I've
put a different grade on each surface, which means with two boards I have four possibilities.
These are handy, for instance when you're leveling a large edge, say the top rim of
a cup. You can just spin it around like that. You'll find this paper lasts a long time.
You can knock out the dust like that, and even take it to the sink and wash it. It'll
last for months. Let me show you a bright sparkly finish you can create with a brass
brush. I'm going to be working on sterling. I want to be certain that I don't get this
yellow color on the sterling, and I prevent that by using soap. You can either rub a piece
of hand soap across it, or just dribble on a little bit of liquid soap. I'll make the
brush wet. This is just plain water here. Then scrub the piece using a circular motion.
You can see the result is a nice warm glow. I kind of like it better than the hot shine
that plain sterling picks up from rouge. Metal surfaces can be protected by sealing them
from the atmosphere. This can be done with a soft substance like wax, or a hard sealant
such as lacquer. This is the appendix, the section where I make three pieces of jewelry
to show you the way the bits of information fit together in a final project. Here I'm
bending a bezel to fit a red jasper. After being cut to size and fitted, the joint is
dressed with flux. A chip of hard solder is laid on, and the piece is laid onto a brick.
The bezel is checked for size, and then the bottom edge is trued, fluxed, and set onto
a piece of thin sheet metal. Again, hard solder is used. Here I'm cutting off the excess
sheet with some snips. The remaining metal is then filed off, and the height is adjusted
with small scissors. To make the shank of the ring, I've twisted 16 gauge round wire,
making two twists, one that runs clockwise, and the other counterclockwise. These are
laid in between two pieces of flame wire, and sided up. I'm going to finish off the
end of the twist with a little jump ring. Half round pliers are used to complete the
bending of the shank, which is then trimmed off to accept the bezel. I'll do this work
upside down, making certain that I've got the shank well oriented on the bezel, so that
the oval sits straight on the finger. Here I'm enlarging the bezel slightly, tilting
it out so it will accept the stone. The stone is then laid in and the bezel pressed over.
To smooth, polish, and toughen the bezel, I'll use a burnisher. In this case, the final
polish was achieved with a buffing stick. Next, I'll show the making of a four prong
setting for a faceted stone. In this case, I'll use a round amethyst. The first step
looks like I'm making a bezel. In fact, the wire is a little thicker than I'd usually
use for a bezel, and the ring is a little smaller. The outside diameter of this ring
is the same as the girdle, or the maximum diameter of the stone.
I'll be making prongs out of 16 gauge wire. In each prong, I file a point in the end.
The point is useful for this step when I'm pressing the prongs into the fire brick. I'll
trim off the excess on the downside, and file its move. Here I'm soldering on a loop of
wire, which in this case will serve as the bail. I'm making a pendant, but this same
setting could be used for a ring, pin, or earrings. The stone is checked for fit, and
the prongs are snipped off closer to their final height. Then they're shaped, first with
a file, then with sandpaper. The stone is laid into position, and the prongs are pushed
over, either with pliers like this, or with a stone setting tool. And next we'll make
a box. The first step is to score the line that will make the fold for each corner. I
start with a needle file, then use a large file, and finish up with a square needle file
again. You know you've gone far enough when the piece can be bent easily in the fingers,
with the crease showing through in the back side. I scored a single piece, and then sawed
off what would become the top and the bottom. Now I'll bend each corner and check it against
the square. Here you see two L shapes for the top, and two others for the base. The
corners are joined with hard solder. At each step along the way, the size is checked and
double checked. The excess is cut off with a saw. The bottom
is slid into the opening of the box, and soldered in position. And then the same treatment is
done for the top. Here I'm using that piece of roll printed material that you saw made
earlier. In this case I've got the solder on the inside, because I don't want to damage
the star pattern. Now to make the hinge, I'll prepare a bevel
on both the lid and base, and further round those out with a needle file, so that it will
accommodate the small piece of tubing, like that. A tube cutter is used to cut the knuckles
for the hinge. This is generally an odd number, here I'll use five. The knuckles are laid
into position, and because the groove was so carefully measured in the first place,
they have no place else to go, so they'll tend to hold themselves in alignment. The
piece is heated, and the knuckles stay. The excess is then trimmed off. The piece is polished,
in this case with a brass brush, and then a snugly fitting hinge pin is slid into position.
The ends of the pin are lightly riveted over. Well, that covers the basics. That's all
the information we could cram into that little box. But of course, there's so much more
to say, and we haven't even talked about design. That's where your personality combines
with the foundation that we've laid here, to create pieces that are unique and personal.