Metal

In my Metals class I produced a wall mounted vase out of copper. The body was formed by a process called raising. Basically it consists of hammering a metal disc in concentric circles over a stake, gradually changing the angle as you progress. After a bit of hammering, the metal becomes work hardened and won't move under force, leading it to crack or break; This requires constant annealing, which is done by bringing the metal to a certain temperature where the crystalline structure breaks down and reforms into a more malleable state.

Here is the finished product:


The Process

I started with a piece of aluminum, but the alloy was unknown, causing it to not anneal correctly. After a week of hammering on it, it exploded, suddenly forming half a dozen gaping cracks across its surface in a matter of a few hammer blows.

So I switched to Copper:

Here is the first two passes with the hammer on the stake looks like:

Oh yeah, this is what the hammer and stake look like:

A little more raising:

After a certain point I had to planish it over a domed stake to work out the wrinkles:

And then a lot more raising:

And more yet:


At this point I became impatient (each picture represents several hours of hammering) and tried to raise the point faster than the metal could allow and I got a tear in the tip. I patched this up with solder and it worked out in the end:








The final shape:

I then went through a series of tragic mishaps trying to make the base out of bronze, after two weeks I gave up and went with a much simpler design and switched to copper. A closer look:

The entire thing is made of only two pieces of copper, the vase and the rod base. The base is nailed into a wall with only one nail and cantilevers out to hold the vase.

Here is the other thing I made in the class.

It is a brass ring… AND MORE! The design is influenced by a very old Jujitsu weapon the Samurai used, and through the popular mystification of them, associated with the Ninja. The ring is used not as a punching aid, a sort of one fingered brass knuckle, but rather as an aid to joint manipulation and pain compliance with the spikes worn inward towards the palm.

The historical rings are ugly wrought iron things with needle like points, much more nasty and not as easy to wear. My ring is a more modern take on an old weapon. I have tested it out with a few of my martial arts friends and it is quite effective.



Song of the Day: Who Is He And What Is He To You, Bill Withers (Today's song has nothing to do with events in my life, it's just a kick ass song)