On Aug 25, 9:25 am, Ted Frater wrote:
William Black wrote:
"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message
.. .

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:14:40 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "William Black"
wrote:

"Georgia" wrote in message
m...

I was surprised and disappointed to find, on Googling "sinusoidal
stake,"
to
find only a handful of sources--Otto Frei, Walsh (all the way in the
UK),
and Allcraft. Am I missing something obvious here?

1. Walsh's sell mainly German stakes.

2. They're a specialist 'detail engineering' supplier as well as a
jewellers supply house.

3. That's a bloody odd piece of kit for a jeweller, I've only ever seen
them in an armourer's workshop where they're used to make couters and
polenys.

What are you planning on making?

Mr. Black's posting, and his being unaware of what the stakes are used for
in
the U.S., nicely illustrates just why sinusoidal stakes are still
somewhat of a
rarity. Most larger stake manufacturers are traditional european firms,
or
patterned after such, and making designs refined over a long tradition of
their
use. Anticlastic raising, by contrast, is quite new, and it's teaching
has
been, so far, mostly concentrated in the U.S. The word itself only
entered the
metals field by means of Heikki Seppa's (spelling? Not gonna look it up.
sorry
H.S.) cool little book on shell forming and nomenclature in the 60s, which
introduced as well, some new ways of thinking about metal forming and the
shapes
one could get, as well as why work that way. But his work was larger in
scale.
Not until Michael Good, for the most part, refined thos methods to work on
a
small jewelry scale, were "raising" tools of a size needed to make
jewelry,
needed enough for standard designs, like a sinusoidal stake, introduced.
That
stake, which is nothing more than a convenient means to have a whole
series of
progressively smaller anticlastic curves on which to work on small items,
all in
one tool, is quite specifically the result of Michaels innovative work and
methods. European jewelry traditions have not yet really incorporated
those
methods, though of course individual artists may well have, just as U.S.
artists
learn stuff from their european colleagues. But the tools are still
pretty much
limited in availability, since the market for them is still small.

I looked some of the stuff up on the web.

Some of it is remarkably ugly, if novel.

A lot of it looks like something from a Birmingham School of Jewellery 'End
of course' show that is more for looking at, showing off professional
design skills and getting a job than actually selling.

Some of it's bent tube that can be bent using any reasonable tube bending
process.

People in the UK do rather tend to buy jewellery because they like it rather
than because it looks striking and unusual.

As for the wavy stake, the armourers one is about fifteen inches long, two
inches wide and is often the subject of unsavoury jokes involving young
ladies.

Only today had the time to look at this thread, too much else to do.
Interestingly Bill Black,s comment about these designs being like
final year projects from the B'ham jewellry schoo in the 70's is right.
Ive seen this idea before many years ago.
So as a technique its not anything new, tho Mr. Good's use of it has
proved to be the flavour of the month in your country.
Good luck to himand I hope he has lots of success with it.
As a technique its been around a lot longer. The principle of stretching
sheet in a specific way to generate compound curves has been used in the
automotive industry and the aviation fields for 60 years at least.
Tho not by hammering but by wheeling as its called here.
I had a product line using this technique on titanium sheet to make 3d
cuff bracelets some 25 yrs ago.
Part hammered and part tension rolled.
As these were just one of a number of designs I made and marketed there
was no need to develop the idea further.
As a technique it works just as well in most metals from copper through
stainless steel then to titanium and on to the noble ones.
As for Mr Good's hydraulic press, well , unless he plans on a production
run of several hundred of a sculptural form, the die costs will be an
eye opener, apart from a steep learning curve.
My hydraulic press I use for coining, will go to 250 tons.
Not a toy and needs to be treated with respect. With hydraulic pressures
of 11,000 psi, this could seriously effect your health.
I call it my die breaker.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Ted:

Can you actually make "saddle" shapes by roller-stretching on an
English wheel? I thought it was generally used for compound curves
where both surface profiles move in the same direction, not for saddle
or anti-clastic shapes, such as we are discussing here, where the
cross-sections curve in opposite directions. Can you post a link to a
couple examples, if you know of some?

Regards,

Bob