A Recap From The February Meeting's Demonstration
There are, basically, two types of blacksmiths. There are those who
keep track of original stock dimensions, make an estimate and then
several test pieces before actually making the final item. Then there
are those who carefully calculate the "volume" of material needed based
on the final dimensions what they are planning to make. They wield a
pencil and calculator like an algebra professor, carefully pouring over
measurements and formulas before ever touching hammer to metal. Mr.
Toby Hickman is one such smith. During his demonstration he clearly
proved that this "calculated" approach works very well indeed. The
actual piece in progress was a tapered ring, much like a barrel hoop,
that was to hold a blown glass lamp shade. (see figure 1).
In order to achieve the correct taper, a calculation based on the area and volume
of a slice of a hollow sphere was used. I will not reprint the formula
here but if you are interested the formulae and diagrams can be found
in the book, "Forge Shop Practice" by J.W. Lillico. A book I fully
intend to add to my library as soon as I locate a copy. Centaur Forge
has another book by J.W. Lillico called "Blacksmith's Manual
Illustrated" which contains similar information.
After calculating the amount of metal needed, the tapered ring was
formed in a two step process. First it was bent on edge, looking much
like a large letter "C".
Then it was bent on the flat to form the
tapered ring. Once again, the correct radius was carefully calculated
and a form for it was spot welded to a metal sheet. A long heat (Ala.
gas forge) was taken and the flat stock was shaped, on edge, to this
form. The "C" was then bent on the flat with the Hossfeld bender. By
measuring and marking the flat stock at regular intervals and then
bending the same amount at each mark, the tapered ring was quickly and
smoothly formed. A pair of these rings were mounted to a bracket and
the wiring and glass were added later. Mr. Hickman had a few
interesting approaches to texturing the metal. In his opinion, the
metal needs to be worked prior to forming in order to achieve the
appropriate "forged" look. A furniture maker would call this technique
"distressing." A simple fixture for the power hammer from two pieces of
flat stock welded to a steel plate was used to achieve the desired
texture.
Another approach would be to forge the stock to dimension
from non-dimensional material. For example; forge round stock to the
flat or square stock dimensions needed. In production work, however,
you want to minimize the total number of man hours invested. Purchasing
metal to size and then texturing it under a power hammer is more
efficient of time and labor. In many ways Mr. Hickman's
demonstration was beyond me. I do not work in this fashion but I could
very clearly see that it is a method worth learning and pursuing. A
good guesstimate is fine but when you rely on what you can make in a
given week for your lively hood you really want to minimize wasted time
and materials. In his final statements Mr. Hickman had this to say,
"You can take home what I am showing you here and make it your own.
Adapt it, change it, make it fit the kind of work of you do. If you
don't you are plagiarizing and there is no justification for that."
Author: Franklyn Garland
HTML Editor: Roger Schmitt
ArtMetal Curator: Enrique Vega