Warty Goblin Makes Crap

[warty goblin]

I like to make things. Maybe other people are interested in those things, so here's a thread about that.

More specifically, I make things out of wood and/or metal, occasionally with some stone pieces as well. Since I live in a dinky studio apartment, this places certain limits on what I can execute, since I don't have lots of space for tools, though I do have a 10 inch bandsaw squeezed into one of my closets, which lets me get much more creative in the woodwork department.

This weekend I spent experimenting with raising things in copper and brass, which went better than expected. After a practice piece yesterday, I produced this seashell necklace. I left it rough from the hammer because I liked the antiqued look, and because it saved about three hours of filing and sanding.

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So that's moderately acceptable. Next weekend I've got a wood carving I want to finish up.

[Lethologica]

Those are some really interesting patterns in the lower center. Looks cool!

[warty goblin]

Those are some really interesting patterns in the lower center. Looks cool!

Thanks! The patterns are actually just hammer marks I left in the metal. I raised the shell out of a sheet of 18 gauge brass by putting it on a stake with a curved tip, then hitting the metal with a hammer just to the side of the center of the stake. Brass, being a copper alloy, work-hardens under stress quite quickly, which makes it too hard and brittle to work, so I had to anneal the piece fairly frequently. This is simply a matter of heating the metal up to red hot using a blowtorch, then quenching it in water, which relaxes and softens the metal. It also coats it in a darker residue, particularly the deeper hammer dings, which is what makes them pop out so much on this piece.

If you want a smooth and shiny surface, all the dings and dents need filed and sanded out. For a piece this big, that's at least an hour and a half of work, plus some additional time planishing out the deeper dents to make the surface smoother overall. I liked the rough look though, so I just lightly sanded the surface with some 400 grit and filed the edges smooth before treating with Renaissance Wax