Friday, December 19, 2014

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.  

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Another one
Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon

Spoon