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sinusoidal stake source?



 
 
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Old August 26th 07, 10:29 AM posted to rec.crafts.jewelry
ted frater
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Posts: 133
Default 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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