I’m pretty sure that I’m off with the direction of the hammer, but can’t figure it out & don’t know how to correct it.I’m trying for straight lines -like a teepee, not bowl legged.
Please help.
Practice and don’t be afraid of over correcting. This means go to the inside of the unwanted curve and see if you can move it all back. You might also look at the face of your hammer. This is very personal, but mine have a curved face to them and you can use it to correct a condition like that which you have shown us on the run as you are doing your forging. Hammer faces can and should be refined from time to time. I have the luxury of a lapidary lathe that allows me to do very fine corrections on my hammer faces. I then polish them with my lapidary wheels or a very course compound like bobbing compound and then polish with tripoli and rouge. Practice on copper. It is a lot less expensive than silver and forges almost the same as silver. Good luck…Rob
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You’re not hitting straight onto the metal. When the hammer face hits the metal in slight angle to the right, the metal will move to the left or vice versa. It appears that is what’s happening to you.
The other thing to consider is that a cross peen hammer will move the metal forward more than sideways. Where a planishing hammer will move the metal in all directions.
That’s a very simplistic explanation.
One of my favorite books on metal forging and shaping is Creative Metal Forming by Betty Helen Longhi and Cynthia Eid.
Also here’s a bunch of threads on forging in Orchid. You might find some useful information there.
https://orchid.ganoksin.com/search?q=forging
What Rob said great advice. Practice on copper. Try different things. When hitting your metal purposely angle the hammer to the left, to the right, try to hammer straight on without any angle (hitting straightly is harder than it seems). Try different shaped hammers (cross peen, planishing, ball peen). Annealed metal vs unannealed metal.
I hope that helps!
Jeff
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I can’t tell from the picture what your final piece will be…Rob
Rob & Jeff - Thanks so much for your suggestions. I’m putting the project on hold & am going to practice on copper wire with different hammers as well as try to the figure out the angles & directions of my forging. BTW Rob - I’m trying to make earrings - attaching links at the bottom of each previous link - so they will multiply toward the bottom. I’ve seen a similar pattern by Art Smith (I think) When I get it right I’ll post a photo.
Thank you both so much.
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I am still practicing after 50 years. Right now it is how to successfully enamal a piece of sterling silver. There may come a time when you want a curved look like what you are getting now, so try to figure out how you did it. It happens to me when I am pounding out the ends of a particular bracelet that I make. I find that ,if I move the piece to a different orientation on the anvil relative to me and the hammer, I can either fix the problem or avoid it. Go to the hardware store and buy a couple feet of 10 or 8 gauge copper wire and spend some time practicing and keep your hammer faces polished, Good luck and post you new earrings when you get them done…Rob
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I sympathize with you. I have been working at this for nearly 40 years and I don’t always get it right.
Moving metal is not always an easy thing. There is one bracelet I make that I am able to forge the same way twice. I am getting ready for an art show and I try and have one bracelet of this style in each size and they often take the longest time to make. Just about the time I think I have found the magic it escapes me.
The only things that come to my mind are 1: What is the face like in your hammer and 2: Are you starting with annealed metal?
Good luck, keep us posted.
Don Meixner
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So - I’ve figured out a couple of things while practicing: I found that a different planishing hammer works better - one with a less curved dome. Also, I’ll need to fabricate it differently - I was bending the wire in half, threading it through the previous link & then planishing both ends on a steel block. Now, I planish one end, thread it through, planish the other end & then bend it in half. Waiting for more silver wire & then will continue. Thank you all for your responses to my questions.
Sheila
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