M’lou
When I was in undergrad school, I once worked for my professor over
the summer. He had a rare mandrel that was about 2-3’ tall,
cone-shaped, from an inch at the top all the way to over a foot in
diameter at the bottom. Never saw another mandrel like that till one
of my students said, oh, I have one, I’ll loan it to you. Now, that
mandrel on loan is over 2’ tall, 1 1/2" at top and about 11" at the
bottom. I’ve only seen two in my life, and I have one right now. I
don’t use it much, but it surecomes in handy. I’ll be sorry to hand
it back to my student, and it’s been in my studio for probably 8-10
years now.
I’ve used a metal stool as a mandrel once, and I also found old
steel plumb bobs makes great conical mandrels. I’ve used my concrete
floor to flatten large rings (over a foot big).
As for vises, I still use my grandfather’s old blacksmith vise,
which was probably his father’s and grandfather’s as well. My
grandfather came from an old and thrifty Yankee family, that used an
old wood burning stove that burned down the family house twice, and
the third house, still had the wood stove. I remember it well. House
is still standing, but different owners now.
Joy, who loves and uses old tools, hammers and stakes.
Hi
I have a metal shot glass that is good for in between sizes. There
are lots of things that can be used as mandrels.
Richard
Not to hammer on, but to shape, I have used a long neck beer bottle.
It sits on my bench ready when I need it right next to the full one.
Rob
Most working blacksmiths shops have these as standard.
there usually from cast iron, hollow and can be in a whole range of
sizes.
Have one too.
And Joy, your lucky to have those lovely old smiths tools.
Very handy for silversmiths as opposed to jewellers, tho any one
into metalwork never has enough tools.
I guess my fetish? is hammers, and pliers.
Anything thats an extension of the hand interests me.
When the children were little we used to go to the local beach,
where from the chalk cliffs, flint was eroded away.
Whilst they were playing, I sat down with a couple of flint nodules
and in half an hour had flaked up a rather crude hand axe.
Just like our stone age grand parents did all those eons ago.
Still have it, tho never put a handle onto it.
Hi Robert,
Can you explain to me how you avoid breaking the bottle itself? Are
you using a rubber mallet, rawhide, etc. This seems like a good
budget idea if I can avoid breaking the bottle constantly.
Thanks,
Megan
I use it only to shape a very light piece such as a bezel or other
piece that needs to be round but bigger than my round ring mandrels.
You can pound lightly with a rawhide or other such hammer, but don’t
pound on it for obvious reasons. I have also used a baseball bat,
wooden tapered ring form for abrasive cones and I also use my
bracelet mandrel to get a big circle kind of round and then go by
eye after that. It’s all in making do with what you have or can
find, and remember that it is the eye that will measure your work
when you get all done. Rob