scoring lines in sterling

I'm making a series of cylindrical/octagonal salt shakers, and have
to score the lines to fold into the proper angle to achieve the
octagonal shape. Its straightforward scoring a narrow band of silver
and then deepening the score by filing, but its proving a bear to do
the same on lines several inches long. Short of buying a scoring tool
setup for a flexshaft at about $200 is there a simpler way to
accomplish the scoring. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Herb Wohl

On , in õ "Herbert Wohl, MD" wrote:

I'm making a series of cylindrical/octagonal salt shakers, and have
to score the lines to fold into the proper angle to achieve the
octagonal shape. Its straightforward scoring a narrow band of silver
and then deepening the score by filing, but its proving a bear to do
the same on lines several inches long. Short of buying a scoring tool
setup for a flexshaft at about $200 is there a simpler way to
accomplish the scoring. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Herb Wohl

Find an old hand file. heat the last half inch or so of the TANG (not the file part) to
a nice red, and bend it over forming a right angled hook that hangs down maybe a quarter
inch or a bit more. Grind the end to an angled point, at the angle you need for your
bends. The face of the hook that faces the rest of the file is smoothed flat, and the
edges facing out to the sides of the file are cut to that angle, as well as angled back
a little away from the file, so the tip of the hook becomes a cutting edge when the file
is pulled towards you. Don't make the relief angle of that hook too steep, or it will
tend to dig in too much. Just a couple degrees. Now reheat the end of the hook to a
red heat, and quench to harden it. lightly sand the surfaces till bright again, and
reheat the tang slightly above the point (the bend) watching the colors form. quench
again when the cutting end reaches a dark yellow. Now resharpen those faces, just as
you'd do with a graver. This is a scoring tool. It amounts to a "pull" graver, and
will score for your folds when repeatedly drawn down the line you need. To guide the
tool in that line, use C clamps to clamp a piece of steel, such as a good steel ruler,
to your silver, with the edge of the steel slightly set back from the marked line. the
amount of set back can be seen by placing the scoring tool's tip on the desired line,
and seeing where to put the rule so the tool rides along it. This works best if the
guide piece if fairly rigid, and a bit thicker than normal steel rulers, as well as if
the edge does not have cut graduations, so this is best done with another piece of tool
steel, and if you like, file the guiding edge to a slight bevel to clear the sides of
the cutting point. To use, just clamp your guide bar to the sheet stock as needed, and
draw the cutting tool along the guide bar. Repeat until it's deep enough. Just as
with a graver, the geometry of the belly facets of the cutter will determine how much
the tool digs in or not, and also whether it's prone to wanting to cut to one side
instead of straight. So some trial cuts may be needed to fine tune the tool. Once
made, though, it's surprisingly quick to use, and works better on your longer cuts than
on short ones like across a ring shank, since the beginning and endings of each cut tend
to dig in a little more. So if you leave your stock slightly larger then needed, score
the lines, and then trim to size, you can trim off any uneven bits at the beginning and
end of each scored line.

Peter

A parallel thread is currently running on Orchid, Check out

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archi...2/msg00167.htm
to follow this thread on orchid.

hanuman

Herbert Wohl, MD wrote:
I'm making a series of cylindrical/octagonal salt shakers, and have
to score the lines to fold into the proper angle to achieve the
octagonal shape. Its straightforward scoring a narrow band of silver
and then deepening the score by filing, but its proving a bear to do
the same on lines several inches long. Short of buying a scoring tool
setup for a flexshaft at about $200 is there a simpler way to
accomplish the scoring. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Herb Wohl
Try a cold chisel.