Once the acanthus lobes have been set, I move the work to the treadle hammer. This foot powered hammer frees up my hands so that I can hold the vein tool and the leaf separately. The tool is placed over the pen line of the pattern which rests on top of a V-swage bottom tool and I proceed to tap lightly to set the fine vein line down the center of the leaf.

I can't stress enough to tap lightly! If you strike too hard, you can cut right through the leaf. You may want to use a slightly dulled hot chisel. Anyway, I set the main vein line from front to back, and then went over the back side with a larger angled cold chisel. This creates the tapered effect on the vein. The side veins are also produced in the same manner.

After setting all the veins I noticed that the leaf had straightened somewhat. I realized that I had work hardened the piece to the point that it needed to be annealed, but decided to do a little bouging on the back end before stress relieving the acanthus leaf.

The last image on the left shows another sinking process which is called bouging. This process is used to create the overall form of the leaf. The tools used are simple. A leather mallet and a wooden block with a carved depression. The acanthus leaf is placed inside the indentation and, by striking with the leather mallet, the overall leaf form is achieved.