adventures in forging.

Now that all of the students are gone and we are in a holding pattern until we leave for the holiday I have a lot of time to make things.  I have a obsession with forging right now.  Silver is soooooo cheap it is hard to resist banging out a spoon. Earlier in the semester I made a spoon mold and had not yet bought enough silver to test it.  I have to say that once you get a proper pour it works like a dream.  It requires some serious heat. The mold had to be pre-heated with an oxy/acetylene torch.  It is 1/4" plate steel so getting the hot metal to pour down into the bottom was troublesome.  I had to pour a couple times before I worked.  I need to flip the mold so the large "bowl" part of the ingot it up.  

Just a few process shots.  I actually have made three "spoons" in the last three days. Well one spoon and two silver shovels.  

Another one