How to make brass hooks

I’m a photographer trying to find some ways to reproduce these
little hooks using brass or copper. The easier the better, as I have
no experience with jewelry making. The method I am currently using
involves placing an original hook onto a piece of .002 copper foil
and making an impression in the foil by hammering it on top of a
lead bar. The impression is back-filled with solder and torn out of
the foil. I brunish down the edges with a pocket knife. Its a fairly
small piece…about 1 cm from top to bottom.

Look at an image here: http://www.ganoksin.com/ftp/hooks.jpg

The first is the original, followed by one made with .002 brass foil,
and one made using.002 copper foil. My main concern is that the
solder is not hard and the hooks are bendable. I’d like the final
thickness of the hook to be around.025-.030 in. thick. How can I
solve this?

Thanks,
Andy

Andy,

Send the original to a caster and have a mold made. Your caster can
then use the mold to make wax replicas and cast them brass using the
lost wax casting method. They will be very accurate replicas. Some
casters also have finishing services so that when you receive them
they will need no further work. There are a number of casters here in
the Orchid community. Contact me off line if you need a
recommendation.

Joel Schwalb
www.schwalbstudio.com

You may find them at this site as the have a large hardware catalog
which the new one just cane out. they reproduce alot of lod school
style stuff. http://www.leevalley.com

been there done that, got tried moving the lead
glen

I read this several times, because it’s tougher that it might look. I
gather that you actually want to have and use these hooks as hooks -
not just decoration. The best thing to do would be to have them cast
in brass - look up “foundry” in the yellow pages, or some jewelry
people could do it. But brass melts at a high temperature, and it’s
doubtful a photographer would have the equipment necessary, and
investing in it to make hooks is not reasonable. The problem being
that other things (like solder) are not going to have the strength. I
would suggest, for a home project, maybe fiberglass resin, or
similar. I don’t know much about plastics beyond that. There is a
plaster called “Hydrocal” that is similar to plaster of paris (which
has no strength) but it sets up like concrete - very strong for a
plaster. You can also make a mold out of plaster fairly easily and
just pour it instead of the pounding you’re doing, but then you won’t
have the brass or copper skin you are getting. Again, the best
results would be to just have it cast in brass…

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

Hi Andy,

I'm a photographer trying to find some ways to reproduce these
little hooks using brass or copper. 

if they have to look like those on your post, saw them out of a sheet
of metal the correct thickness, drill the hole, file edges to shape-
you will need a jewellers saw to make them this way, also you need to
support the sheet on a V shape cut out of a piece of wood clamped to
a table whilst sawing. As an alternative, if you just need the
function not the looks, bend one up out of a bit of brass wire
(copper’s too soft)- use a small pair of round nose pliers, bend a
small circle for the hole first, then the hook section- maybe hammer
slightly flat for added strength,

hope this helps,
Christine in Sth Australia

The first on looks to be cast. How many of these hooks do you want?
If very many, casting would give you a solid metal piece, being as
strong as the particular alloy being used. It would require a mold to
be made, maybe a gang mold do many could be cast in wax at a time,
then the waxes invested, the wax melted out, the investment can
fired, molten metal poured into the “lost wax” hole and the
resulting castings cleaned up. Very accurate reproductions and If you
wanted and it was warranted, a new or different design could easily
be made to mold and make casting waxes from.

John Dach