This steel must be tempered before it can be used. To do this place the ends just filed into the fire. Heat about 1 in. of the end red hot. Cool 1⁄2 in. of this hot end in the water till quite cold. Take it out and rub the end with a piece of emery cloth till it shines.
The colour will begin to flow toward the end. When the blue colour reaches the end plunge the whole piece into water. The oval chisel is used for outlining the depression. The flat chisel is used for levelling the bed to receive the stone. With this chisel cut away the material inside the marked outline, keeping a little inside the border line. Cut away the silver to about the depth of 1⁄32 in. You will find the opening a little smaller than the stone. With your chasing tool drive around the inside of the oval, undercutting until the stone fits in. This undercutting drives up a little silver rim, which does the work of a bezel on the stone. When this rim is forced against the stone, the stone is held in place. The ring is now ready for the stone, but the thickness of silver makes it large and clumsy. Before putting the stone in, the ring should be filed down to the proper dimensions. This requires a great deal of filing. Use a rough file at first and finish with a fine one. When the ring is shaped as you wish polish up the inside and outside.
To place the stone: With the ring mandrel on the vise, put the stone in place and put the ring on the mandrel. Tap gently on the silver rim, driving it against the stone. Do not drive it too hard or else you may crack the stone. Finish up and polish as explained before.
Finger ring, stone set with prongs:
Material: One piece of silver, No. 14, width and length the same as the others. Stone—in the design, square.
Tools: Same as used in making the other rings.
Directions: Draw design, cut pattern, place it on the silver, and cut out as before. Bend the ring to fit the finger, and solder. After the silver band has been cooled off and the wire has been removed, put the band back on the mandrel. With the planishing hammer strike down, flattening the top. This reduces the thickness of the ring and gives us a flat surface, to which the prongs are soldered.
To make the prongs: Place the stone on a No. 24 piece of silver. Draw the outline of the stone on it. The square piece of silver should be 1⁄8 in. larger all round than the size of the stone. A stone may be set with 4 prongs, or 6 or 8, according to one's taste. In this setting we have the 4 prongs. Mark the outline of the prongs on the square piece of silver according to this picture.
Saw out on the dotted lines. Cut a piece of copper the exact size of the stone. Place the copper on the silver and bend up the prongs at right angles to the silver plate. Take away the copper, and file the under part of the silver piece flat, and prepare the upper part of the ring in the same way. Bind the flat part of the prong piece to the flattened part of the ring, and solder. If the flattening in the first place has made the ring too large for the finger, cut a piece out along the soldered joint. Fit it to the finger and resolder. File all joints perfectly smooth. The prongs should be filed carefully and made perfectly even and of the exact size and shape. Place the stone in and push the prongs against it. Rub each separate prong down until it fits close against the stone. This prevents their catching on anything like cloth, etc. Polish and finish as explained before.
Finger ring, made of twisted silver wire:
Material: No. 30 fine silver wire; length depends upon the design of the ring.
Tools: Same as those used in making the other rings described.
Directions: Cut off a piece of No. 30 wire about 6 ins. long. Bend it in the middle, place the two ends in the vise and, with a pair of pliers, grasp the other end. Twist the wire into an even twist. Select the stone. The round stones are best for this wire setting. In making this wire ring it is best to make the setting for the stone first. Cut a piece of wood the exact shape of the largest part of the stone. Bend a piece of No. 30 silver 1⁄8 in. wide around the wood peg, till the two ends just meet. Coil around this the twisted wire, one strand upon the other, until you have about three coils. Wash with a little borax; place a little silver solder upon the under side of this coil. Heat and solder the strands together; at the same time solder the band on the inside. Place it on the ring mandrel, and curve it to fit the shape of the finger. Either press it with your fingers or use a mallet.
The setting is now ready for the ring: The ring can be made either by twisting a piece of wire to fit the finger or by using just the plain wire itself for the ring band. In either case, the piece of silver used for the band, plus the size of the setting, must equal the size of the finger. Solder the two ends of the ring band to the sides of the setting. File the inside opening of the setting to a level; place the stone in as you did the others. Clean and polish up as usual.
Material: A piece of No. 20 silver for the body of the pin; the size is determined by the size of the stone to be set. A piece of No. 24 for the bezel. A piece of No. 20 silver wire for the pin. The pin piece can be bought at any jewellery store, if you do not wish to make your own. They are better, too, than those you make yourself. Solder and borax.
Tools: Shears, files, draw plate.
Directions: Cut a piece of silver, No. 20, the size of any one of the above designs. Cut a piece of No. 24, 1⁄16 in. wide and long enough to go around the stone, to make a bezel. Be sure that this bezel fits close and tight around the stone. Bind the bezel, and solder. After soldering, fit the bezel again to the stone, for the soldering is apt to change the shape. File the bottom off perfectly flat; clean the surface of that part to be used for the back of the pin. Bind the bezel on this piece, wash with borax, and solder it in place.
Pin: This can be bought at any jewellery store. However, if you wish to make your own, you can do so in the following manner: Place a piece of No. 16 wire in the draw plate and reduce it a little. This drawing through the plate stiffens the wire, and this is just what is needed in a pin; otherwise it would bend when pushing it into the scarf. When you think it is stiff enough, file the end to a long needle point. Cut it off about 3 ins. long. Bend the blunt end down at right angles 1⁄8 in. Place this end against the back of the pin in such a way that the bent end will be against the plate and a little above the centre. Bind it in place and solder it on tight. Be careful to heat just as little of this pin as possible, for you remember that heating a piece of silver red hot softens it, and you must heat it red hot to solder. So confine the heating to as small a space as possible. Sometimes I soak a piece of cloth in water and wrap it around the pin, covering up all except the part to be soldered. This prevents it from softening.
To place the stone: The stone is put in and the bezel is pushed against it and holds it in place.
This is a very plain scarf pin without any pretence at design. Scarf pins can be made in all shapes, sizes, and all sorts of cut out designs.
All silver should be polished smooth and made free from scratches. The polishing hardens the surface of the metal. This is why silver jewellery of all kinds becomes brighter and smoother the longer it is worn.
Setting of stones in scarf pins: There are many ways of setting stones for scarf pins. The setting just described is called a box setting, the bezel forming the box to receive the stone. The open or prong setting is made in the same way as that kind of setting is made for the stone in the ring.
This necklace is made on the basis of a circle 7 ins. in diameter. Most necklaces having pendants are about this size. The design of this necklace is very simple. One stone is set in the pendant and this shows on both sides. The whole is connected by silver links. The stones, one either side of the pendant, between the links of the chain, are set in the same way as you set the stones in the scarf pin and rings. The only work to be done which is different from any you have done before is the making of chain links.
Material: No. 20 or 22 round silver wire, the amount depending upon the size of the chain. Stones, carefully selected.
Directions: Draw the design of your necklace on a piece of paper. Place the stones at intervals. When they seem well proportioned draw the chain links between them. The length of the links will depend entirely upon your setting. When you have decided just how many links go between the stones on your design, measure off the length of one of those links. Round links do not hang as well as oval links, neither do they look so well.
To make the links: Take a piece of iron 3⁄16 in. in diameter and file the two sides oval in shape. This is a bar on which you can bend the links. One end of the silver wire is placed against this mandrel and both put into the vise and fastened. Bend the wire round and round this iron rod, making the coils as close as you can get them. Count each revolution as one link. You can easily count the number of links in your necklace. When you get the number of turns needed, unfasten it all from the vise and pull the rod out. You have a spiral-shaped coil. With a jewellers' saw, saw the length of the spiral on the end of the links. Each one will drop off in the shape of a link. This is the very best way to bend up a number of links that will be uniform in size. You will notice that the ends of the link, after it is sawed off, are not opposite each other. Push these ends together, using the fingers or a pair of pliers. If the sawing is carefully done the links will be ready to solder. Solder first one link in the usual way. Hook the other link into it. Repeat until the chain is the desired length. If the proper amount of solder is placed on the joint it will run in without making lumps to be filed off later.
Pendant: The pendant is made in the same way as the watch fob, which is explained in a later chapter. The setting of the stones in the chain is done as other stone setting, except that the ends are filed into shape to receive the links for joining. Fastenings for the necklace can be bought at any jewellery store. It is much better to buy them than to attempt to make them.
Square silver wire can be used to mark out the design, or any design, instead of round wire, and great variety can be secured merely by a change in the shape of the wire used for the links. Again, you may have a necklace with or without the pendant; the so-called bar necklace, the dog collar, or the chain may be lengthened until it becomes the watch chain.
In the group picture of necklaces there is one necklace made up of long flat links joined together by small links soldered on. The design for the necklace is sawed out. It is used for a necklace and watch chain. This is only one of many suggestions for sawed out design work applied in this way.
Collar slides make very pretty pieces of jewellery. Three form a set, and they are easily made. These given here are all made of silver with turquoise setting. The centre slide is usually a trifle larger than the other two. A piece of ribbon is slipped through a little wire slot put on the back of each slide for that purpose. Any colour ribbon that blends with the silver and turquoise looks well.
Material: One piece silver, 5⁄8 × 11⁄8 ins. (for centre slide). Two pieces silver, 9⁄16 × 11⁄8 ins. (for other two). Three stones well matched. Piece of No. 20 silver wire, 5 ins. long.
Directions: Cut out the shape as the picture shows and saw out the inside according to the design, leaving a flat space at the top large enough for the stones you have selected. Set the stone the same as you did stones for rings, scarf pins, etc. After the bezel is in place for soldering, cut off a piece of No. 20 wire, and bend it in the shape of the sketch given here.
This is soldered on the back of the slides. Bind this on at the same time you bind on your bezel, wash with borax, and solder both. Do same on each one. File down the bezel, put the stone in place and push the bezel against the stone by rubbing. Polish and finish. This design will no doubt suggest many ways of making slides.
Brooches and bar pins are made in much the same way as scarf pins. The bezel is soldered as to a flat bar of silver to receive the stone. But, in place of the stick pin, brooches have a bar, hinged on one end, and a little catch hook on the other. These bars and catch hooks can be bought very cheaply at almost any jewellery store, and cheaper than one can make them. However, if you wish to make that part of the brooch or bar pin yourself you can do so in the following way: Take a piece of silver 2 ins. long and 1⁄8 in. wide, No. 20. Round this piece of silver up by driving on the wide side about one inch from the end. Keep doing this till the piece of silver is about 1⁄16 in. square. Drive the four corners down, and you have an 8-sided bar. If these corners in turn are hammered down you have a 16-sided piece, etc. Continuous hammering reduces this bar to a round piece of silver about one inch long. The end should be flattened down according to the sketch (1).
To make the hinge (staple and hook): Take a piece of silver, No. 24, 1⁄8 in. wide and 3⁄8 in. long. Bend it up in the shape of a staple, square at the end (2). The piece for the hook can be made at the same time you make the piece for the pin. Use a piece of wire 1⁄16 in. × 3⁄8 in. long. After hammering, bend it like the sketch (3).
To put the staple and hook together: Drill a 1⁄16-in. hole in the staple very close to the top. Drill one in the flat shank of the pin also close to the top. (See sketch.)
Put a silver rivet in and rivet the two together, making a hinge. Place this on the bar pin or brooch and then put the hook in its proper position. Now you can get the exact length the pin should be. Cut it off long enough to let the end project through the hook about 1⁄8 in. File this to a needle point and polish very smooth. If it is rough it will not push through any kind of cloth easily. To solder, bind the pin and hook to the brooch or bar pin, and solder as you would any other piece. Polish and finish up as you have done before.
Material: One piece of No. 20 silver, 8 × 3⁄8 ins. One piece of No. 24, 1⁄6 in. by any length needed for the number of bezels required. Three or five stones (turquoises blend well with silver).
Tools: Saws, saw frame, drill press and drills, small files, borax and solder.
Directions: Secure small stones of uniform size and the same colour, or colours that blend well together. If the stones selected are too large the bracelet is apt to have a heavy or clumsy look. Bracelets should be fine, and above everything else dainty looking. Take your 8-in. piece of silver and divide it into five equal parts if there are to be five stones, and three equal parts if three stones are to be used. Lay each stone in its section and mark the outline with pencil on the silver.
The sawed out design is a matter of spacing between the stones. The design shown here is a good one for this. You will see that the spaces between the stones are cut away so that the stones stand out as the design rather than the bracelet itself.
If you are working out the design given here, drill holes and saw out the spaces. Do this while the silver is in a straight piece, also file these slots or spaces true and straight, rounding the edges both ways. At the same time round the outside edges both ways, too. This makes the bracelet free from sharp edges and it will feel comfortable to the touch.
Shape the bracelet, bending it as you have bent other bands. There is danger, when bending this, of the weak places, where the open spaces come, bending in sharp angles. To avoid this put the greatest strain on the solid places and bend these first. Bring the two ends tight together, then bind and solder. When you have taken off the binding wire, file down any thickness left at this joint flush with the silver band. Bracelets are both oval and round in shape. Choose one of the two shapes and round the bracelet up in that form.
Now cut the silver for the bezels long enough to go around each stone. These are all soldered in the usual way, then filed to fit and lie flat on the bracelet. Place the bezels on the solid places and bind each one separately. Place a little bit of silver solder on the inside of each. Be careful to wash the joint made in the band with a little clay to prevent its melting during the soldering of the bezels. If the bracelet during the soldering has lost its shape round it up again. File all the bezels down so that the tops are perfectly smooth. File off any rough spots in the circle or bracelet and polish it all inside and outside. Shape a soft piece of pine wood to fit the inside of the bracelet. Put this wood into the vise and put the bracelet on it. Now set the stones, one by one, and rub the bezels tight against them. Polish with rouge or pumice.
The open bracelet is really an Indian design. Take a piece of silver wire, 3⁄16 × 8 ins. long. Hardened silver is best. It can be gotten just as silver wire that has been softened can be bought. Cut a piece 3⁄8 in. long from each end. Place these pieces on a piece of charcoal. With the blow pipe melt these pieces. Each will run into a little silver ball. Solder the balls to the end of the silver wire, one on each end. Bend the wire now in the shape of a bracelet. You can make the two balls just touch or you can leave them about an inch apart. Polish in the usual way. If the balls are carefully soldered on to the ends of the wire they make a very effective decoration.
Silver spoons: (1) Teaspoon, (2) Sugar tongs, (3) Mustard spoon, (4) Salt spoon and salt-cellar.
Material: No. 8 sterling silver 6 × 11⁄4 ins.
Tools: Hard wood block, drill press and 1⁄16-in. drills, jewellers' saw and frame, files, shears, and raising hammer.
Directions: Examine carefully any teaspoons you have at home. These will suggest ideas for designs. They will give you a clearer notion of how teaspoons are made than any sketch you may see. When you have decided upon your design, draw it on paper and cut out your pattern. Paste this pattern upon the piece of silver. You cannot cut this metal with a pair of shears. Put it into the vise and cut it out with a cold chisel as you did the paper knife, or you can cut it out by placing it upon the flat stake and, with the chisel held vertically, driving the chisel into the silver. You will find the vise best, however. Now you have the outline of a spoon with the same thickness all the way through. If you have examined a teaspoon carefully you will see that the bowl of the spoon itself is thinned toward the outer edge, and that the handle is tapered toward the end. The thickness of the metal is left at the short bend of the spoon where it meets the bowl. Now place the large end on the anvil stake and with the raising hammer (round end) drive down on the metal, thinning it out and at the same time shaping it into a spoon bowl. Your silver widens out and makes the bowl larger than it should be. Cut off the surplus silver. It is much better to have to cut down to the size than to be compelled to stretch the silver out, as it were, to a certain size. In one case you can stop when you have the proper thickness, but in the other you might make the metal too thin for practical purposes, in order to get it wide enough.
Handle: Handles should be tapered out from the thickest part to the end, and left large enough on the end to saw out or file into shape any design you may wish to make. Don't work your problem too close so far as material is concerned. Any waste material in silver can be returned and exchanged for full value.
Hammering any metal hardens it. When this silver becomes hardened anneal it, but just enough to allow you to shape it up. However, the last annealing should be done some time before the hammering is finished so that the last work on it will harden it sufficiently to prevent its bending when in use. Hand made spoons have a beauty about them not matched by those mechanically made. If this handle is to have a sawed out design, the drilling and sawing are done as before described.
The finishing should be carefully done. Round the edges so that they feel smooth and comfortable. After polishing, the spoon is ready for use.
Material: No. 16 gauge silver, 9 × 3⁄8 in.
Directions: Make your pattern and mark it off on the strip of silver. Either saw or cut off the surplus material. Drill two holes where the holes are shown, for the claws. Saw down to these holes. Do this on either end. You now have three prongs, the middle one a little wider than the other two. Take the pliers, grasp the points of the outer two and turn them outward, forming a claw. File them until they have the shape shown by the design. Do the same on both ends. File the whole piece up, rounding the edges nicely. Notice that the edge view given in the drawing shows the centre thinner than either side. This is flattened down and the flattening of the silver hardens it, so that when it is turned it acts like a spring. When you have flattened the centre part out to the thickness of the drawing, place it on a wood block and with a chisel-shaped wood peg drive in the centre, making the inside slightly concave, and rounding the top side a little. This will bend the tongs like the design. Shape the claw ends to fit the sketch on a hard wood block, using a mallet. Before bending the silver into shape take the wood peg, place the claws on the wood block, and with the wood peg drive down and slightly concave the centre of the claws. All design work must be put in when the metal is in a straight piece.
These are made in the same way as the tongs with claws. In the place of claws you make the bowl spoon shaped on the wooden block, using a mallet. The spoon bowl should not be larger than 1⁄2 × 7⁄8 in. Finish and treat in the same way as the sugar tongs with claws.
Material—Mustard spoon: No. 14 silver, 3⁄16 × 3 ins.
Directions: To make a mustard spoon like the sketch given here, measure 1⁄2 in. off the end of the silver stock. This makes the bowl of the spoon. Flatten the end down, thinning it out toward the edge. File the bowl round. Place it on a block and hammer it into a plain simple bowl shape very deep. One inch from the handle end flatten it out, thinning it out toward the end. File to shape, and bend as shown in the sketch, similar to a teaspoon.
Material—Spoon: 3⁄16 × 21⁄2 ins., No. 14.
Directions: Salt spoons are made in the same way as mustard spoons. However, the handle is shorter, and the bowl is oval shaped and not quite so deep. Any little sawed out design may be placed on the handle, same as the teaspoon design. Using the same design, a set can be made to match.
Material—Salt-cellar: Silver No. 24, disc 3 ins. in diameter.
Directions: Take the 3-in. silver disc. Draw on it a 1-in. circle in the middle. Place it on an anvil stake and drive it into shape like the sketch given here. This is done in the same way as the base of the chalice was hammered up. Hammer marks should be left. They add to the design itself. When you have driven it up, see that the bottom is flat, so that it sits level on the table. Trim the top off and file the edges round.
Salt-cellars with fluted sides: There are many ways of making salt-cellars. Some have straight sides, some have tops bent over, some are saucer shaped, and some have fluted sides. Take the 3-in. disc, and divide it into 12 equal parts. File out in a hollow block a round depression and with the mallet and a wood peg to fit the depressions drive each of the divisions into the depression. Narrow the scallops toward the bottom, both in width and depth. Keep within the angle formed by the divisions. As you repeat one after the other you will notice the sides beginning to turn up and shape themselves into a cup similar to the first salt-cellar. The base of this should be one inch in diameter. Finish up and file as you did the others.
Material: One piece No. 24, 1⁄4 × 13 ins. One piece No. 24, 3-in. disc (2-in. hole sawed out of centre). One piece No. 24, 11⁄2 × 1⁄2 ins., for feet.
Directions: Bend the strip of silver, 1⁄4 × 13 ins., to fit the outside edge of the disc. Cut off the ends, and solder. Push the disc into the ring made and solder the ring into the disc, keeping the edges flush with the surface of the disc. File off the soldered joints smoothly.
Feet: Saw out the design for the feet according to the drawing, and solder them on to the back edge of any part of the circle. This must be done with hard solder. Before soldering the feet on, paint the joints already soldered with clay, wash and paint the opening where the heat is applied for soldering on the feet. The edge of the 2-in. circle is bevelled slightly. To do this place the edge on an anvil stake and with a very light hammer drive gently down, bending inwardly. If this is carefully done it will require no finishing except the polishing.
The frame is now ready for the glass. Any kind of window glass may be cut to fit the inside. A little card board frame is made to hold the glass and picture into place. Take a strip of card board 1⁄4 in. wide, long enough to bend into a circle to fit the inside of the silver frame tightly. Cut a disc of card board to fit the card board circle. Glue the disc and circle together. Cover with velvet, so as to hide the card board. Fasten to the back a little stand for holding the picture in proper position. This, too, is made of card board and covered with the same material.
The few designs shown here are easily worked out in either metal. Many handsome watch fobs of silver alone, or copper plain, or copper and silver lettering can be made from an elaboration of these designs. College students delight in copper fobs with silver lettering, symbols of their fraternities, or figures representing their class year. The white of the silver and red brown of the copper blend very well together. The fobs may be set with a single stone, or a number of stones, and, again, symbols may be sawed out of the silver sheet.
Material: Silver, No. 16 gauge. Copper, No. 14 gauge. The size of the piece of metal depends upon the size you wish to make the fob.
Tools: Solder, rivets, shears, drill press and drills, saw frame and saw.
Directions: After deciding upon the design, draw it on paper and cut it out. Paste this pattern on the silver sheet and cut out along the outline. If there is any cut out work to be done, drill the holes and saw the design out. If you are making a silver fob and you wish to enrich it by setting stones, decide upon your stone, make a bezel out of No. 24 silver, and proceed to set the stone as you did in the ring. If the background is copper with silver initials riveted upon it, saw out the slot for the strap to go through, and polish the surface free from all scratches and lines. File the slot round so it will not cut the leather strap. Polish by tearing a little narrow strip of emery cloth the length of the sheet and pushing it through the slot backward and forward, pressing down on the top and bottom of the slot. This tends to round it and to polish out the file marks. Mark the initials on the silver and saw them out. Be sure that the stems of the letters are wide enough to allow holes for riveting. Put only enough rivets in to hold the letters in place. Two are usually enough, except with the letters V and W. The more carefully you follow the lines of the letters, the less filing you will have to do later. However, even with the greatest care some filing must be done and since these letters are the principal part of the decoration, they should be filed square, smooth, and a little rounding on the edges of the face side. Keep the side to be riveted against the plate flat, so it will fit snugly when fastened.
When the holes have been drilled in the letters, place them on the copper plate in the proper position and scratch through one hole with a sharp instrument. Drill a hole through this point the same size as the holes in the letters. Rivet these on with silver rivets. Square the letters up on the plate, drill the remaining holes, and rivet. If the rivet is driven down good and snug the end of the rivet can be filed flush with the top of the silver. If one should wish to use rivets for decorative purposes they should be arranged in a definite way. While riveting the ends be careful to round them up instead of making them flush.
Materials: No. 20 gauge (either material), 5 × 11⁄4 ins. Individual napkin rings may be made either of silver or copper. Most rings are made of the silver, but copper lends itself very well for them. The design may be pierced, or etched out with acid. But the design work should always be done while the metal is in a straight piece. All napkin rings are made in this way.
Directions: Take the silver or copper sheet and round the edges. File the two ends that are to be soldered together perfectly flat so that they will meet with the least possible opening. Bend the metal in shape around a hard wood peg. Bind with binding wire, wash with borax. Then place bits of silver solder along the inside and solder. After soldering, remove the binding wire and file the joint on the inside and outside, until it is all perfectly smooth. Polish and finish. Make a copper napkin ring in the same way.
Cuff links may be made of gold, silver, copper, or brass. Often the design is worked out in the metal alone, again engraving is added, or enamel or stones. The designs given here are merely suggestions. Any one of them works out well in the metal. You will notice that some have a ball on one end of the link and a plate on the other, while some have the double plates. Again, some are made with loose links joining the two heads. The link is loosened and pushed through the hole in the cuff and then hooked on to the plate. One must be careful to make the plates on a pair of cuff links small enough to go through the buttonhole of a cuff.
Material: For plain oval pair of cuff links. Two pieces of No. 20 silver, 7⁄8 × 1⁄2 in. Two pieces of silver wire, No. 14, 3⁄4 in.
Directions: Mark the design by drawing an oval on the two plates of silver. Keep length and diameter of both the same. Clip off the sides and shape to design. Save the small pieces of silver clipped off, as they will be used to make the balls at the other end of the cuff link. With the file, bevel the edge and smooth all down. Place the plates on a wooden block and curve them a little. Take the scraps of silver you cut from the plates, place them in two separate groups on a piece of charcoal, and heat it until they melt. When the pieces melt they form themselves into balls. When these silver balls are cool enough to handle with a pair of pincers, cool them off in water. File away any part of the ball a little flat and solder the silver rod to the ball. Solder the other end of the silver rod to the curved side of the oval piece. Bend the connecting rod, like the picture. This forms the link. Do the same with the other link. Then file, polish, and finish. If stones are to be set, the bezels are made and put on the flat plates and soldered on at the same time the plate is soldered to the link. The stone is placed in position after it is all finished.
The comb described here is of medium size. It can be made larger, or smaller, as the working principle is the same.
Material: No. 20, silver, 41⁄2 × 21⁄2 ins. Three pieces of No. 24 silver for the bezels. The size of the pieces depends upon the size of the stones. Three turquoise stones.
Directions: Take the silver plate, 41⁄2 × 21⁄2 ins., and divide it across the shorter dimension into places corresponding to the number of teeth in the design. Be extremely careful about the spacing. Centre punch these divisions and drill holes about 1 in. from the edge through each one equal to the thickness of each tooth. Here the thickness would be about 1⁄16 in.
With a sharp tool draw lines from these holes to the outer edge. Be careful to have all the lines running parallel to each other. Place the saw through the holes and saw the divisions out, keeping as close to the line as possible. When they are all sawed out, file each tooth separately, rounding each one a little. Do this filing most carefully, for the least roughness left will pull the hair when the comb is put in place. The extreme point of each tooth should be sharp, after a gradual taper from about 1⁄3 the length of the tooth to the end. This can all be done with a file. The comb is now ready to bend in shape. Place it on the round stake and with a hammer curve it until it forms an arc of a 5-in. circle. Most combs are curved to that degree.
Stones: Cut strips of silver for the bezels, long enough to fit exactly around the stone. Set the stones on the same way as you did those for rings and pins. Polish and finish.
Enamel is a glass fused to the surface of metals, for decorative purposes. It is bought in flat discs about 1⁄4 in. thick and weighing from 5 to 6 ounces. These discs are broken up so that one is able to buy enamel in small quantities. It comes in any colour and when put upon the surface correctly the colour does not change and it is not affected afterward by atmospheric influences.
Tools: One needs few tools for this work. A wooden mallet, a mortar and pestle, and a small spoon used to put the enamel on the metal when filling the design will be found sufficient. The spoon may be made by taking a 1⁄8-in. piece of silver or copper wire with about 1⁄2 in. of the end flattened down spoon shaped. File this end round and smooth so there will be no ragged edges.
Process: When you have decided upon the colour which you wish, put as much enamel as you will need into the mortar and cover it with clear water. The water washes the enamel and prevents it from flying out as it is broken up. Place the pestle on the pieces of enamel and tap gently upon the end of the pestle with the wooden mallet, till the enamel is broken up into fine pieces. While doing this the water will become discoloured. Drain the water off and pour fresh water on. Repeat this so long as the water becomes discoloured. With the pestle grind the enamel to a fine paste. Press down upon the pestle, at the same time give it a twisting movement with the wrist. When the water remains clear and the enamel is pasty and free from lumps it is ready for use. While using it keep it just covered with clear water. This prevents its drying and in this dampened state it is in the best working condition.
How to place the enamel on the metal: With the small spoon pick the enamel up out of the mortar, place it on the metal and press it down into any depression. Keep it well moistened all the time. Repeat this until the whole depression is covered. If any part is left uncovered, that part will show black after firing. Then each black spot must be scraped clean, covered with enamel again and refired, which makes much unnecessary work, so be careful at the first to place the enamel just where it should be on the metal, and so avoid the extra work and firing. The muffle furnace: This is a small furnace made for the purpose of melting enamels by what is called a reflected heat. The muffle is a half rounded, shaped clay form open only at one end, into which the piece to be fired is put. The flame of the furnace plays on the outside of this muffle. The temperature is raised to the required heat and the piece inside the muffle is fired without having any flame playing directly upon it. The reflected heat does the work. These furnaces can be bought in almost any general supply store. They come in all sizes. Natural or artificial gas can be used for heating; the regular hose or tube attachment is all that is necessary.
The piece in place for firing: It is usually best to light the oven before you begin to place the enamel on the work to be fired. The furnace heats up in the meantime. Place the piece on the top ledge of the furnace close to the chimney. This is a good place to dry the moisture out of the enamel. If this is not done the steam generated by the moisture and the heat causes explosions, which in turn disturb the enamel surface and dislodge small particles of the enamel. When the steam has stopped rising from the enamel—which you can tell by holding the piece between you and the light—the moisture has dried out and the work can be put into the muffle by use of a long pair of muffle tongs. Extreme care must be taken when placing the piece to be fired into the furnace. The enamel is now very dry. The particles are no longer held together by the moisture and the least jar will dislodge them. The doors of the furnace are usually in two pieces, so that the upper half can be lifted away from time to time. One can look in and watch the process of melting. When the enamel is first put into the furnace and the heat begins to melt it, it rapidly changes colour. As it begins to melt it settles down and takes on a glassy, soft, smooth surface. At this point it is ready to take out. It is placed again on the top of this furnace, where it cools off slowly, otherwise the difference in expansion between the metal and the glass would cause the surface to crack. After one or two trials one easily recognizes the critical time when the enamel is well baked. These directions are only for enamelling flat surfaces. If one should wish to enamel both the inside and outside of a box lid rounded on the top and curved on the under side, a few large drops of gum arabic should be mixed with the enamel used for the under side. This prevents it from dropping off when in position for firing.
When the work has cooled off so that it can be handled, it will show a surface every part of which is covered, if carefully done. If not the black spots will appear. These are copper spots oxidized by the heat, and must be thoroughly scrubbed and scraped. The enamel edges around these spots must be scraped away, covered with enamel, and refired. If there are no spots shown, the work is ready for finishing. You will find on the upper edge of the enamel line a black line caused by the impurities in the enamel which rise to the top edge. Scrape this off with a fine file until it entirely disappears.
The copper, too, usually takes on beautiful colours during the heating process. Many like to leave the colours just as they happen to come by the heat, others prefer to polish the surface to bring out the real copper colours rather than the oxide colours. To clean the oxide off one must put the piece into a pickling bath made up of one part of sulphuric acid to eight parts of water. This softens the scum on the surface of the metal so that a soft rag dipped into any cleaning material like pumice stone will easily clean it off.
Cloisonné: In this work the design is done usually in coloured enamels, which are separated one from another by means of ribs of metal bent so as to follow the outlines of the design. These ribs are placed on the plaque, and a drop of solder here and there keeps them in place. The coloured enamels are filled in between these ribs and fired as before explained.
Champlevé: In this method the partitions between one colour and another are formed by ridges of the base and not by separated ribs of metal. These ridges are made by driving the metal with chasing tools from the under side up and raising it above the surface. The spaces between these walls are filled in with enamel, and it is all fired as explained before.
The lid on the rose jar as shown in the group is an example of this kind of enamelling.
The best method of obtaining a coating resembling patina is to immerse the article in a solution of nitrate of copper, and then to place it while still wet in a chamber containing an abundance of carbolic acid. In this case the development of the green incrustation may be observed from day to day. If after a week the object has not yet obtained the proper colour, it must be again dipped in the above solution, and this operation is repeated till the desired shade has been acquired. As the formation of this green colour proceeds in the same way as in the open air, but more rapidly, a handsome and permanent coating of green can be produced by this means.
How to put a thin coating of colouring on the surface of metals by chemicals: A great variety of shades may be obtained simply through heat. The colours ordinarily produced on copper articles by means of heat come through the polishing. Any metal whose surface is highly polished will take on a number of different colours, beginning at a straw colour and changing to a dark straw, purple, dark blue, light blue, and steel or gray, by heating the piece to be coloured to a temperature of 630° F.
Barium sulphide and water (a very good composition for colouring metal): Immerse object until it assumes desired tint from light brown to violet to black. Heat gently over bunsen flame until a rich deep violet appears. After it is cool rub with soft cloth.
Patina imitation (a very good composition for the greening of copper):
Saturate soft cloth and rub or sprinkle the solution on the copper. Let stand in the open air ten or twelve hours. Wash the colour off with clear cold water. Tone down to suit.
Another way of colouring metal.
Silver.
To oxidize silver: The following is a solution commonly used for oxidizing silver:
The variety known as liver or sulphur is generally used, and imparts a reddish brown colour to the silver, the colour being darker the darker the solution. It should be worked at 60 or 70 per cent. The stronger the solution the blacker the colour. If ammonium carbonate (20 grains) is added to the above formula and is worked hot, a black colour appears upon rubbing with a very fine wire brush. It takes on the colour of black lead. Colouring of brass:
This will turn brass a very beautiful blue-black colour. Copper assumes a very beautiful tint from this solution.
Cement for engravers: Melt best pitch in an iron pot and when completely liquid stir in a mixture composed of two thirds of raw pitch and one third plaster of paris. Make a lot of ten pounds. Add one half pound mutton tallow, boil and mix thoroughly. Should this be too soft, add plaster of paris until you get the desired hardness:
To polish enamel: After rubbing it down with the corundum file, take a small rod of tin or pewter and after anointing it with fine Tripoli or rotten-stone, grind the surface of the enamel evenly with the tin or pewter rod. Next take a stick of lime wood and use that with the rotten-stone in the same way and finish with putty powder and stick covered with chamois skin.
To unsolder a piece of work: Paint those joints which are not to be unsoldered with a mixture of clay water, to which add a little common salt. When dry, scrape the part to be unsoldered and paint it with borax. Now heat till solder melts, pick off with pliers or knock it off with a gentle tap. The borax adds flux, thus helping the solder to run at a melting temperature.
Most of the jewellery that we see nowadays and also much of the metal work is made under presses or drop hammers. As was shown in the making of the mould for the round copper tray, the skill lies in the making of the design and the making of a mould to fit the design.
The description of the making of a match safe by means of die sinking will explain how all die work is done: The design for the match safe is made by the artist, who turns it over to the die sinker. He, in turn, chisels out of a steel block, about 7 ins. square, a depression in which the design fits. If the match safe has an embossed design, this is all chiselled out carefully with small chisels and filed up smoothly so that when a piece of soft lead is driven into the depression it will take the shape of the match safe as designed by the artist. The lead is so soft that it takes the print readily. This lead reproduction shows to the die sinker any imperfection in the die. The imperfections, if there are any, are smoothed down. The driving in of the lead into the depression is repeated from time to time, until the mould is the exact reproduction of the artist's design.
The die is now hardened by heating it red hot and cooling in water. When taken out of the water it is placed in the hammer or press. On the ram of the hammer is keyed, directly above this die, a square block of lead. When the hammer falls, the impact of the lead upon the impression produces a reproduction of the impression. This lead piece makes the top die. A piece of thin silver is placed in the steel die over the impression. If the ram is now dropped upon the silver plate it will force the plate into the impression and will stamp the design on the silver. One half of the match box is made in this way. When two of these are made, put together, and soldered, they make a whole match box. Thousands of match boxes would be made from this one die. That is the reason why this class of work can be sold so cheaply.
The principle explained here is used for the making of tea sets, dinner sets, etc. The same thing is true of the round wood mould you made to make the copper tray in. It can be used to make dozens of trays, all the same size and shape.
Alloy: Base metal added to silver or gold for hardness or colour. Also any combination of different metals by fusion.
Annealing: Softening metal by making it red-hot and cooling slowly; for steel, brass, copper, silver, cooling quickly in water.
Backing: The coating of enamel on the back surface of box lids, to neutralize expanse and contraction, thus preventing top enamel from cracking.
Basse-taille: Low cutting of metal beneath the line of the surface, used in enamelling. The drawing or modelling of the subject is given by the different depths of cutting.
Beck iron: T-shaped anvil or stake used in hammer work. The arms of the T are long; one is round and slender, and tapering; the other has a flat upper surface.
Bossing up: Beating out sheet metal in the back into rough forms required.
Champlevé: A process of enamelling on metal in which the ground of the pattern is cut away with a chisel into a series of shallow troughs into which the enamel is melted, the surface being afterward ground smooth and polished.
Chasing: Surface modelling of metal with hammer and punch or chasing tools.
Cloisonné: An enclosing ribbon wire, which being soldered edgewise on a metal ground makes a trough into which enamel is melted, the ribbon making the division. Thus the design is separated.
Collar: A ring made of stout leather filled with sand or some other soft material used to support the pitch block.
Draw Plate: A flat plate of steel or iron with rows of graduated holes, used for drawing or reducing wire.
Face Plate: A square thick iron plate with the surface perfectly smooth and level to test work on.
Flux: Any material used to protect the surface of metal from oxidation when exposed to heat. Borax and water mixed, etc.
Graver: A kind of small chisel used for cutting metal, or lines on surfaces.
Mandrel: A rod of wood or iron of any section used either for coiling wire for chains or the making of rings. Matt tool: A punch, flat and graduated on one end, used for making groined surfaces on metal.
Pickle: Solutions of various acids in water used for removing the film of oxide and sulphide surface of metal. The acids used are nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sulphuric acid, about 8 to 1. This is strong enough for ordinary work.
Pin: The hard wood peg fixed in the bench to hold work against to file and fit.
Pitch block: Some iron blocks and wood blocks covered with pitch used as a support for metal in repoussé work or chasing.
Planishing: Beating a plane or level surface to a sheet of metal by the use of a broad smooth-faced hammer on a stake or anvil. Also used to give smoothed face to a bowl or cup or other object in sheet metal.
Repoussé: The method of beating out sheet metal from the back with hammer and punches.
Sand bag: A flat circular or square bag of leather filled with sand used for bossing up metal upon.
Scraper: A tool made from an old file by sharpening the point on a stone to a three-sided pyramid; used for scraping clear edges and surfaces to be soldered and for cleaning up work generally.
Snarling iron: Long Z-shaped bar of iron fixed in a vise and used for bossing out the surface of vessels from the inside. They act by rebounding from the blow of the hammer near the end fixed in the vise.
Tracer: A chisel-shaped punch used for cutting for any design or work that requires deep lines.