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sinusoidal stake source?
Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:55:01 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Ted Frater wrote: Re your hydraulic press, its horses for courses and I didnt think I belittled your type of working. Oh, I know you weren't belittling anything. I just wanted to make the point that unlike the longtime industry standards for tool and die work, and the usual uses to which presses, hydraulic, drop hammer, or otherwise, have long been used in metalworking including jewelry work, there are other less costly ways in which this type of tool can be used, and that in the last couple decades, perhaps especially in the U.S., artists have devised a number of methods often using low cost, sometimes home built, presses, and low tech methods of die and tooling production, that have rather expanded the usefulness of such tools, especially for artists. Many in the tool and die world, or in industries commonly using classic steel stamping or coinage dies, the types of tooling used in these newer methods may seem amateurish or somehow less "real". Certainly, they are easier and cheaper ways of doing the things they do, and they do not usually duplicate the types of results produced by classic dies. But their low cost and versatility, and the speed of making the tools for low production quantity uses, has opened up a new avenue of production for many artists. See if you can find a copy of "Hydraulic die forming for artists and metalsmiths" by Susan Kingsley. She didn't invent it, but did refine the methods a lot, wrote a good book on it, and taught it through a lot of workshops, along with Lee Marshall, the guy who started producing the Bonny Doon line of small hydraulic presses so people didn't have to go make their own press. As with anticlastic raising, the methods themselves got their first exploration (by artist metalsmiths) some decades ago (70s, I think), but as with anticlastic raising, it's taken a while for the body of knowledge to spread to enough people, and perhaps to a second generation of metalsmiths now, so it's more widespread than just stuff found in the art schools or a few isolated studios. It also illustrates an interesting difference between metalsmithing in the U.S., and that in europe. European jewelers and smiths are often highly trained technically, having gone through more extensive training in technique and methodology than the somewhat shorter courses found by U.S. art school students. One result of this seems to be a greater degree to which the european artists tend to stick to the traditional methods they were taught. The thinking often goes "there's a right way to do this sort of thing, and thats the main way it should be done. ". Here in the states, students are often not so ingrained in the "right way". While that means many will spend or waste more time with the wrong ways, and sometimes not produce work of as high quality while they're learning the so-called right ways, sometimes with instruction and often just by trian and error, it also means they tend to be more open to exploration of new ways, or ways which work even if traditional workers don't regard it as the right way. You recall the old saw about an expert being the guy who'll tell you exactly why something won't work, while the amateur is the guy who, not knowing it shouldn't work, goes ahead and sucessfully does it. This sort of exploration into unorthodox methods seems more common here in the U.S. And in hyrdraulic die forming as we're discussing here, the traditional die worker often may use urathane rubber as a spring to eject parts from a die, or for similar uses as an ancillary tool. But it was the U.S. workers, who, noting that urathane deforms, but does not compress, and under pressure will flow up and around a form pressed into it, first made major use of it as a replacement for the female half of a die set. That means a single welded up steel box with an inch of urathane rubber in it becomes a universal forming die if you put metal sheet into it, place anything on top as the male shape, and press down. I'm not saying, of course, that this was invented in the U.S., or even by artist metalsmiths. I have no idea, in fact, where this was first noticed or made use of. But it was here in the U.S. that artists who saw this method, first took serious note of it, and accepted it as a usable and respectable method. It's since travelled the atlantic of course, but even now is somewhat slower to catch on. I'm reminded of an interesting interchange I saw when first visiting various jewelers and metalsmiths studios as part of a trip to London along with the rest of the class at Cranbrook Acadamy of art, during the 70s. At Cranbrook, Richard Thomas (the head of the metals area, and pretty much a self taught silversmith) had worked out a means of sinking metal into what he called a masonite die. Two layers of masonite, perhaps with a sheet of aluminum or brass, etc, in the middle, had a shape sawn out of the middle, bolt holes drilled to clamp the layers together, then a sheet of silver or other metal also drilled and clamped in the middle of the sandwich. You could then use hammers to sink the sheet into the exposed cut out shape with considerable ease. The sandwich would keep the edge flat and supported, and it was very easy to do things like a tray, for example, since with that support, keeping the edge flat, the bottom too, could be easily controlled and kept flat. When we got to London, this method was being explained to some silversmithing instructor at the Royal College of art, I think, after he'd just finished expounding on how a tray, among the various vessels one might make by classic raising methods, was among the most difficult to do, since the shallow wide shapes like that would warp and distort easily, and controlling a tray while raising or sinking it took great skill. So our masonite die method was brought up, explaining that this method made it easy. So far so good, right? What was intersting about all this was the great degree of resistance this whole idea was met with. There was, we were told, a right way to do this, and other methods simply weren't the right way. Granted, using a masonite die means the worker won't have to learn to control the metal enough to do it that hard way. But in the time the classic worker will have, with great skill of course, made his one perfect tray, the guy with the innovation of the masonite die will have made two perfect ones... And I'm rambling again. Enough already. Cheers Peter Rambling? not at all, this is the sort of interchange of ideas that makes this group worth all the lazy folk who come and ask stupid questions without making any effort to look it up in a book or Google it. I have been aware of the use of hard male and flexible female read eurethane rubber moulds in a steel box. About the use of masonite with sheet silver to make a tray. Ive not heard that one being applied to our kind of work, but its the standard way of deep drawing most items in industry. Obviously the tooling and clamping is different but the principle is the same. Like seamless stainless steel sinks and car door panels. About the use of traditional techniques as opposed to using anything that comes to hand. I made almost everything by hand for some 19 years before I heard in 1987 about the complete drop stampers workshop that no one else wanted . All the more modern tools had already gone to other silversmiths, all that was left was all the old Victorian stuff, all dirty and blackand rusty. However this 10 ton lot was in fact everyhing that had been put together as a drop stampers workshop in 1851. The complete drop stamp, all the dies, with all their press tools, the fly presses, the catalogues for the dies with pictures and original price lists. the owner wasnt well, and didnt have a son to follow on, and wanted it to go. Well,I thought about it for a couple of days and got back to him. I made him an offer, scrap price plus 10% but with the promise I would use it and never scrap it. So eventually I hauled it back here , had it all around the place sheeted down on palletts. And the rest is history. Fortunately I had my hand stamps made in Birmingham so up I went and asked this Co for any guidance they could give me. They taught me the traditional way drop stamps worked and what one could do with them. this foundation of knowlege is there for any skill and is the starting place for pushing the envelope just that bit further. As you may recall I made this drop stamp fully portable based on the idea that I could then take it to an event and mint a plaque or medal for the event AT the event. I did this 1st in 1989 , technically it worked fine but financially it didnt pay. I then took it again to our local but biggest in the world steam fair, some 200,00 people over 5 days. I comissioned a plaque for this event, and didnt stop making them . they sold off the hammer as fast as I could make the, Folk were queing up for them. I ran out of blanks half way through and went home to blank all the copper and brass sheet I had. No one had made a drop hammer portable before . I didnt see why not. tho all my friends in the birmingham jewellery quarter thought I was quite mad. If youve been to my website you can see a list of all the work this old tool brought me. I was told I couldnt make coins in a collar with a drop hammer. I sat down looked at the problem and had it working within a few days . then I had some proper dies made and had the comission for 500 siver coins for Schloss Burg Nr Solingen to mint these on site at their 1000 year anniversary of the castle's history. the last one off the hammer was as good as the first. If youve read the fictional autobiograpy of Michaelangelo By Stone? The master didnt do his best work till he was in his 80's so theres hope for me yet. Good to hear your thoughts too. I guess im rambling as well!!. Ted. |
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