Historical manufacture techniques

There’s an interesting book entitled, The Metalsmiths, from
Time-Life Books (1974), edited by Percy Knauth. It is meant for a
popular audience and has lots of nice pictures. Some observations: on
p. 14, the first drawing identifies the large vessel as a crucible –
personally, I think this is unlikely, and it is probably a depiction
of annealing a metal vessel. On p. 32 is a photo of the perforated
pendant from Shanidar, Iraq, dating to perhaps 9000 BC and often said
to be the earliest example of worked copper. However, in the
meantime, it has been re-identified as made of a copper ore (stone),
rather than of corroded metallic copper. On p. 47 is a drawing of two
men carrying a crucible over to a mold, into which they would pour
out the molten metal. Personally, I doubt that this would work – it
seems more likely that the mold would have had a top (with pour
channels) on it and the whole thing would have been buried on its
side in a fire-pit or furnace where it could have been pre-heated.
After that, molten copper/bronze would have been poured into it. Am I
the only one who suspects that the molten copper would freeze too
rapidly and also irregularly, if poured into the mold in the way
shown in the drawing??

On pp. 23ff. are photos of living metalsmiths from Afghanistan, Iran,
and India showing processes of working metal using what we could call
"primitive" techniques. Pp. 74-75 show Kurt Matzdorf raising a silver
bowl using only bone, wood, and stone implements. And there are many
more things of interest.

Judy Bjorkman

Sorry to replying to this so late, but we’ve got a new baby and had
a very busy christmas. I’ve done quite a bit of blogging on this
subject over the last year, and I’m on a temporary residency at
Loughborough Uni in the UK, doing some practical experimentation
with techniques.

Currently, the best version of the blog is at
http://primitive.ganoksin.com/blogs/

I’m not a PhD researcher or anything like that - I’m a jeweller who
has been trying things in a workshop, so my work can’t be considered
scientific or archaeological.

There’s no real alternative to a rolling mill - hammered sheet has a
lovely quality to it, but you could only make a small amount in a
day, and so it would not be economical unless the customer is paying
you to do it (or if you’re lucky like me, and have the support to
experiment).

-Hammered wire can also be made to a high standard, but again it
takes time,and a very particular sort of precision to keep control
of the metal. There are alternatives to hammered wire - you can draw
it, but you’ll need to hammer it to less than 3mm diameter before
you do this. You can also make some of the archaic forms of wire and
pseudo-wire - strip-twisted (like a straw, as someone mentioned),
strip-drawn (like a very fine tube with an unsoldered seam) and
block-twisted (square section wire which is twisted and smoothed).
All of these methods are a great deal of fun to make, but of course
you’ll need to produce wire or strip to make them, so quite a lot of
hammering is necessary. There are how-to guides for all of these
wire-making methods on my blog.

The best advice I can give is to work in fine silver or fine gold,
as every process you undertake will be easier and more forgiving
with these materials. I’ve produced sheet of less than 0.1mm thick
in fine silver, and while I did anneal it regularly, if the work was
done in sterling, it would have to be annealed and pickled so often
it would be ridiculous.

It’s often hard to truly know the manufacturing methods of the past,
but the general principle is that the metal should be as fine as
possible, and as clean as possible - the more effort you put in at
first, the easier it is later on - for example, if you accidentally
put a flange on the ingot early on, and hammer it back in (instead
of filing it off) you can eventually find a flaw that runs the whole
length of your sheet or wire. Thesame goes for any dirt or cavities
that get worked into the ingot - they seem insignificant at the
time, but when you deform the ingot to 10x the size, the flaw gets
spread out just as much.

There have been some great suggestions for books so far - a few of
them I’ll have to buy myself, I think. My personal suggestions are
from a range of historical periods, but do try “The Pirotechnia” by
Biringuccio, “The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and
Sculpture”, “The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial” published by the British
Museum, and “Anglo-Saxon Crafts” by Kevin Leahy.

And above all, get a copy of Theophilus, as someone suggested above.
This is the first ever workshop manual (AFAIK), and it really is
something special.

There’s a range of articles on my blog about tools and processes -
you’re probably best to look at the technique section for details
about different wire production methods. I should soon be posting up
more articles, detailing what I’ve been doing at Loughborough so
far.

http://primitive.ganoksin.com/blogs/category/technique/

If I can be of any further help, feel free to email me: offline

-Jamie