THE LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY.
Working in Metals

THE LIBRARY
OF WORK AND PLAY

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

WORKING IN METALS

I

INTRODUCTORY

"It would be mighty nice to know how to do something else besides running an elevator all day. I get so tired of that. How long would it take me to make a box like this one?"

"Not very long if you begin in the right way. I've worked at it only since I left school. The manual training I got there helped me to know how to handle the tools. You had that training, too, and I know it will help you. Here we are, this is my workshop and bedroom. Let's work here together and I'll teach you all I know: how to use the tools and just what to do."

So began two boys to do work that one had done—metal work which any boy can do if he will but take the trouble to get the tools and have the patience to learn the way step by step.

"You don't need a large room for your workshop, you see," said John. "The table here is my work bench and all the tools can be put into a box out of the way when you are not using them.

"Here are my sketches of the tools one needs to make almost anything out of copper, brass, or silver. The blacksmith made the drawings for me and taught me how to make some of the tools myself. He says every boy should learn to make his own tools and I shan't be satisfied until I can make them all. Then I can make them as I need them and only those that fit the work best. But I had to buy most of them to start with. Here they are."

II

TOOLS

My dividers are my compasses. I draw circles, mark pieces, and find centres with them. The pliers are used to twist the binding wire and to hold the metal when it is to be heated, or soldered, etc.

You can get a wooden block like this anywhere. Hard wood is best. This block is 6 × 4 × 4 ins. You see, I cut out a hollow bowl-shaped place in the top. When I want to work a flat piece of copper into a rough bowl shape, I hammer it into the depression. The opposite end of the block, which is flat, is useful in many ways, too.

I couldn't get along without my bench vise. Here it is; made of metal. It can be fastened to a table as well as to a bench. It holds any tool used for shaping and also the metal when I wish to file it.

This piece of ³⁄₈-in. hexagonal steel, 5 in. long, tapered at one end down to ¹⁄₁₆-in., is a punch for making or pressing holes in copper or silver. The size of the hole depends upon the length you drive the punch into the metal.

The centre-punch is made like this one, but the end is ground to a point.

Here are my hammers. I have three and a wooden mallet. The raising hammer is used for many things which you will learn as you get on. You see one end is somewhat rounded. You can pound away on the copper with this hammer and have no fear of driving holes into the metal. It's the first hammer I use to shape up the metal bowl with.

The shaping or driving hammer is flat at one end and rounded at the other. Its bent head is shaped so that you can use it in places where a straight headed hammer won't go. It's the only hammer to use when you work on the outside of boxes or bowls to shape them up.

Sometimes lumps are left on the surface of the copper after the raising hammer has been used. These are smoothed away with the planishing hammer. Its broad end flattens these rough places and makes the surface perfectly level before going on with the work.

A wooden mallet is often used in place of the heavier hammer. If a light stroke is needed it can be used without danger of marring the metal, as wood is so much softer than the metal itself.

You'll need some files to reduce the metal to certain sizes. I have four: a bastard, 12-in.; a mill cut, 8-in.; a half round mill cut, and one round ¹⁄₂-in. mill cut. Then I have one half dozen jewellers' files of different sizes. Supply houses will always tell you the best kind to buy.

The cold chisel is used in many places for cutting off material, especially for metals that are too heavy for the shears.

A carpenter's gouge chisel will be found useful for cutting impressions in wooden blocks.

The drill press is used to bore holes into the copper or silver when you wish to rivet or saw. You will need a half dozen drills for your work. The ¹⁄₁₆-in. drills are the size I like best.

With a jewellers' saw frame like this you can cut any design out of copper or silver. The fine saws are very cheap and one will last you a long time if you take care of it.

Here are the tools I use to finish shaping my bowls on. This round top stake is put into my bench vise, where it is held tight. Then I put my bowl on it after I have shaped it as much as I can on the hard wood block. I can then go on shaping it as I choose, but if the bowl is very deep you must use the anvil stake instead of the round top stake.

Here is a tool which is a combination of anvil stake and riveting tool. I use it for drawing out pieces of copper into different shapes; flattening round pieces, rounding up flat ones, and for riveting pieces of metal together, as you must do when you make a piece of work like my box.

Here is a little fire screen I made myself. You need one, you know, to put your metal in, at times, for annealing and soldering. It's a safe way to prevent the blaze burning the table or setting fire to anything. I take two pieces of board, each 6 × 12 × ⁷⁄₈ ins. (any kind of lumber will do). Nail the two 12-in. edges of the boards together, at right angles to each other. Nail this to a base and line the whole inside with asbestos. You can place any piece of metal you wish to heat in this corner and direct a flame upon it with perfect safety.

All the heat I need comes from a gas burner. Here I have a bunsen burner, and for such work as I do on rings, scarf pins, hat pins, etc., or for any work that doesn't need lots of heating in the process, the bunsen burner will do. But for annealing, which you have to do when you make bowls, or for soldering, when you make boxes, you must have a stronger flame. Then I use the gas range in the kitchen or the bellows blower and blow pipe. If you happen to be where you can't get a gas flame, an alcohol lamp with a mouth blow pipe can be used.

Fill the alcohol lamp with denatured alcohol (bought at any drug store). Light it. With the large end of the blow pipe in your mouth and the small end about ¹⁄₄ in. above and a little to the right of the flame, blow gently. This little blue flame will give you heat enough to solder small pieces. Even a small wood fire would give you heat enough to anneal any size pieces you wish. "Must I learn to make all these tools before beginning?"

"Oh, no, you'd better buy your tools; they don't cost very much. Then we can start to make something right away. The first thing you must do is to design the piece of work you are going to make. I made a bowl first."

"But I can't design."

"Neither could I when I began. You won't find it hard after you have once made a start."

"Let's begin now, John, I want to make something."

"I know you do," said John. "That's the way I felt. Now, I'm the teacher and you must do as I tell you until you can plan for yourself. Here are pictures of a lot of things we can choose from: bowls, boxes, trays, etc. If a boy can make all these models he can go on and make nearly anything in copper, or even silver, he would like to make. Here are the bowl designs I have drawn. Of course there are bowls of different shapes, and some have covers to them. But we will try to get the shape that's most pleasing. Let's take this wrapping paper and draw a number of shapes on it, keeping the diameter and depth of each bowl the same. This model is 4 ins. in diameter and 1¹⁄₂ ins. deep. Let's make all our drawings of bowls that size."

"Which do you like best?"

"I like the first one."

"Now that we've decided on the size and shape of the bowl, I must tell you something about the copper to be used. All sheet copper is sold by number, the higher the number the thinner the metal. Number 20 is a good size to use for most bowls and boxes. I use size 20 for mine. If you want a bowl to be lighter, use size 22 or 24. You can buy the sheet copper at any hardware store."

WORK IN COPPER

III

HOW TO MAKE A COPPER BOWL

With the round headed hammer, using the rounded end, beat the metal disc into the hollow of the wooden block until it takes on a fairly even bowl shape. Keep turning the metal with the left hand while you hammer it with the right.

You soon have a rough shaped bowl full of bumps and wrinkles around the outer edge.

These wrinkles must come because the circumference of the metal disc decreases as it takes on the bowl shape. So long as these wrinkles are long regular curves, they will work out all right. If they should take short, sharp shapes there is danger of the metal splitting. In order to avoid this be sure to keep the wrinkles hammered out flat as you work along.

If you went on hammering too long after your bowl is shaped, the bowl would crack or perhaps break, for hammering leaves copper hard and springy. So you must soften it before you can safely hammer any more. To do this I hold the bowl over a gas range until it is red all over, then I plunge it into cold water. This heating to soften up the copper is called annealing. Repeat the hammering until the bowl takes on the shape of the design.

Now take your round top stake and put it into the vise. Place the bowl over the round top stake, and with the planishing hammer, beat the surface until it is perfectly smooth, driving the metal just hard enough to flatten the bumps made by the hammering in the wooden block. If carefully done the surface will be true and bright and covered over with brilliant facets. A skillful hammer-man can really drive the metal in any direction he may wish. In this way you make a bowl out of one piece of copper. The top of the bowl will be ragged. Cut this rough edge with a pair of shears. File the top with a smooth file until it is perfectly true. A good test to make sure of this is to lay the bowl down on a plate of glass, or hold it up against the window pane. If there are still any tiny openings left in the edge the light will be easily seen through them. More filing must be done until no light comes through from the smallest space. This done, take a piece of emery cloth and rub the edge of the bowl until the file marks disappear. If you lap the cloth over the edge your rubbing will leave a rounded edge, which is just the finish it should have.

To flatten the bottom of a bowl: Turn the bowl upside down on a bench. With a pair of dividers find the centre of the bottom of the bowl. This is done by placing one leg of the dividers against the side of the bowl and with the other making a light scratch as near the centre as you can. Change the position of the dividers to the opposite side and do the same, but be careful that the scratch is light. Repeat this until you have done it on the four sides.

Where these lines cross is the centre. With one leg of the dividers on the centre draw a circle having a diameter of about two inches. Take a wooden mallet and strike down on the centre of the circle. This will flatten the bottom. Work from both sides of the circle and keep the rounding edge just touching the circle made by the dividers. If the strokes are too heavy the bottom will bend in like the dotted lines in the sketch.

In that case, turn the bowl up and hammer from the inside. The bowl is now ready for polishing. Mix some powdered pumice stone with water. With a woollen cloth that has been wet and then dipped into the mixture, rub the bowl. This both cleans and polishes and at the same time gives a beautiful lustre to the surface of the metal.

IV

COPPER TRAYS

Material: Piece of copper about 7 ins. square, No. 20 gauge. A hard wood block, 10 × 10 × 2 ins. thick. Tools: Carpenters' gouge chisel, dividers, steel punch, shears, round peg of wood, 6 ins. long and 1 in. in diameter.

Design: Take a large sheet of plain paper. Draw on it a 3-in. circle. Using the same centre, draw a 5-in. circle. This gives you the plan or top view of the tray. Below this view on the same sheet, draw the elevation, or edge view of the tray. You can make the tray as deep in the centre as you wish. Let's make this one ¹⁄₂ in. deep, that's a good proportion.

This is what we call a working drawing. If you are pleased with the design, you can go right on with the work, if not, you can change it to suit. You can see by the design that the tray is made by driving the centre of this square plate of copper down into a depression. In order to do this we must make a mould the exact size and shape of the tray centre. This is what the square hard wood block is used for.

Take your hard wood block. Draw diagonal lines across one face. Where these lines intersect is the centre. With your dividers, using this centre, draw a 3-in. circle. Place the carpenters' chisel anywhere on the circle and strike with a hammer, driving the chisel down into the wood about ³⁄₈ in. Do this all around the circle. Gouge out the loose wood until you have cleaned out the whole depression, being careful not to go below ¹⁄₂ in. in depth (the depth of your design). Smooth this up nicely with sand-paper. The mould is now ready for the metal plate. With the steel punch, make holes in each corner of the copper plate about ¹⁄₂ in. from the edge and just large enough to fit the wire nails. Place this plate over the mould so that the centre of the plate comes right over the centre of the mould. Fasten the four corners down with the wire nails. To drive the metal into the depression we must use something softer than a steel hammer. A hard wood peg has been found to do this best. Cut a piece about 6 in. long from the end of a broom handle. Round one end up, using a file or a carpenters' chisel to do so.

Place the rounded end of the peg on the circle of the copper plate and, with a hammer, drive the copper into the depression below it. As constant hammering hardens copper so that it ceases to respond to the blows, it is necessary to soften up the metal by annealing as the work goes on. Take the sheet off the block. To do this, place the point of the chisel under the copper sheet close to the nail head and pry the nails out, lifting both copper and nail up at the same time.

After annealing, nail the copper plate in the same place as before. With the wooden peg continue driving until you fill the depression, at the same time flattening all parts of the metal that may push up. Be careful not to mar the copper at any time. When everything is perfectly flat and smooth take it off as before.

We are now ready to draw the 5-in. circle on the copper. The centre for this circle is the centre of the depression; and that is found with the dividers in the same way as you found the centre for the bottom of the bowl. Make the circle on the copper. With the shears cut along a little on the outside of this line. Smooth up and round the edges of the tray with a mill file. Rub out file marks with a little piece of emery cloth. If the hammering has been uneven some parts of the copper will have stretched more than other parts and the tray will not lie flat when placed on a table. To level this up, place the tray top side down upon a bench or table and strike gently with a mallet on the surface. Holding the mallet near the head one can control the blows and be able to strike gently. But if it is held toward the end of the handle the blows will not be uniform. This applies to all hammers, whether of wood or steel. You will notice as you do your hammering the high spots will settle down and gradually flatten. The tray is now ready for cleaning and polishing. This is done in the same way as you treated the bowl.

Decoration: Round trays may be decorated in many simple ways by drilling holes in the rim, and then sawing out designs to suit one's fancy, or they may be notched at intervals. Nothing is more decorative though, than the embossed or repoussé design, made by beating from the back and raising the metal on the face above the level. One of the designs given here shows the embossed, and the other shows a combination of the embossed and sawed out work.

The value of the mould: It may seem to you like a lot of work to make a mould just for this round tray, but it can be used many times for making this kind of tray and also for trays of similar shape, like bowl covers, etc. Most of the jewellery nowadays is made in moulds, wood, steel, or lead. Copper, silver, and gold medals, pins, rings, tea and dinner sets are all made by the mould or die method. This mould you have just made is only a simple one; however, complex ones are made in the same way. The skill all lies in making a very good design first and then in making a very smooth mould to fit the design. After one or two trials it comes easy enough. The chapter at the end of the book will explain die and mould making in modern copper, silver, and goldsmith shops.

SQUARE TRAY

Material: Copper, 6¹⁄₂ × 4¹⁄₂ ins. No. 20 gauge.

Tools: Shears, square, bench vise, round hard wood peg; dividers, copper vise jaws.

Design: Determine first whether the tray is to be oblong or square. This material makes a tray 6¹⁄₂ × 4¹⁄₂ in. Draw this size oblong on a sheet of paper. The rim of the tray should be ³⁄₈ in. wide. Draw an inner line all around, ³⁄₈ in. from the outside. Below this draw your elevation, or edge view, showing the depth of the tray. In this design it is ¹⁄₄ in. deep.

First see that your 6-¹⁄₄ × 4¹⁄₂-in. piece of copper is squared. Now draw your inner rectangle on the metal. To do this, set the dividers ³⁄₈ in., and with one leg against the edge of the copper, draw all around the four sides, marking the lines on the metal. You now have a flat sheet marked ready for bending. Place the sheet of copper between the vise jaws, the inner line even and on a line with the vise.

The hard wood peg should be cut to a flat tapered end. This flat end of the peg is held at an angle of about 45° against the copper plate, just above the vise jaw and against the line of the rectangle. With the mallet drive gently. By doing this the body of the tray is pushed in, but the rim is kept straight in the vise. Repeat this all around. You'll have a tray like the sketch. If the body of the tray is not deep enough put it into the vise again and keep driving it until you get the depth you want. The inner corners will be found to be rounded, as they should be. Round off the outside corners to match. File the edges round and finish with an emery cloth, clean and polish as explained before.

V

PAPER CUTTER AND NUT SET