Finishing of Hardware with Relief Decoration

[Jim Kibler]

I have been continuing work on the burl stocked fowling piece I recently introduced.  The last while I've been spending time re-shaping and finishing hardware with relief decoration.  So, I have added another blog entry on my website showing some of the techniques I've used and progress made.  Like before, if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you.  You can view the blog entry at: 

http://www.jimkibler.net/blog/



Thanks,
Jim

[tallbear]

Jim

Great stuff,thanks for sharing what you're up to.I'm enjoying your blog!!!!!


Mitch

[smart dog]

Hi Jim,
I know that you remember this sideplate.  Die sinker chisels were very helpful but I also found that diamond and abrasive burrs normally used in a Dremel or Foredom tool, but mounted in a needle file handle worked very well to shape and polish the detail.  The other tools that I found useful were hardwood dowels shaped for specific tasks, then dipped in aluminum oxide powder and mineral oil.  That method was described in Espingarda Perfeyta.

dave

[FALout]

Simply amazing, you make it look easy.   

[Captchee]

Very nice job Jim .

[Acer Saccharum]

I am always amazed at the metal relief work done by our ancestors, not only by the volume, but the variety in execution.

Steel furniture was sculpted directly, but how much of the brass and silver furniture had cast-in relief? Or cast, then detailed? It is much easier to work clay or plaster, than metal.


For a one-of-a-kind project, I assume it's most effective to cut directly in metal.

Good work, Jim. It's inspiring to see your work going through its phases.

[Jim Kibler]

Thanks guys. 

Those are some good suggestions for polishing, Dave.  I'll have to try the wooden sticks with loose abrasives. 

No doubt most decoration was cast in brass or silver.  In talking to Wallace, he mentioned seeing some European hardware where it was pretty clear that forging dies were used for forming relief work.  I believe in this case it was some sort of grotesque mask used in several locations.

There have been a couple of questions that I'll talk about here.  The gray stuff shown in the above photo is a plastic that softens with temperature.  It can be heated and formed around parts to hold them in place.  In this case it's around the guard and a piece of wood clamped in the vise.  For chisel work, it's important that the piece be held pretty solid.

The little stones shown in the blog post are used quite a bit for polishing after chiseling.  I bought mine from Congress Tools, though Geiswen sells similar products.  Some of my favorites are the "Y-oil", "regular" and "supersoft".  I also have some brown ones with a reinforcing fiber that work well.  Can't remember their name.   They sell some called "super ceramic" that I would like to try.  I've heard very good things about them. 

It's nice to be able to show what I'm working on and am glad others are enjoying it.  I'll be adding more updates weekly.

Thanks again,
Jim

[smart dog]

Hi Jim,
Thank you for posting your work and sharing your knowledge, also starting the blog.  As always, your work is superb and, for this day and age, unique.

dave

[Captchee]

 While im sure in some cases  forging dies would have been . Especially in cases where the same design would be used  several times . But  , I cant help think that  much of this work would have been done with simple displacing punches much as Cover , Bleile  have shown . Follow that up with scrapers  and stones  . Working with softer iron   displace’s much easier then steel .

[Hemo]

Beautiful work, and inspirational, as always, Jim. Would you share the source of the soft plastic you used to stabilize your parts during chiseling and engraving?

Hemo

[Joe S]

dave

Is that sideplate inlet or just sitting on the surface?

[smart dog]

Hi Joe,
In the photo the sideplate is shallowly inlet by screwing it down and then tapping it with a soft block of wood and a mallet.  That left outline marks within which I removed a little wood.  However, it is meant to go deeper and will when I install it on the fowler I will be building shortly.  The stock in the photo was a kit started by someone else that I bought to finish.  Unfortunately, there were too many problems with it to work through and I discarded it.  My bush pilot brother-in-law says you can handle two emergencies or problems simultaneously, but not 3.  That poor stock had 4 or 5.

dave     

[Jim Kibler]

Beautiful work, and inspirational, as always, Jim. Would you share the source of the soft plastic you used to stabilize your parts during chiseling and engraving?

Hemo

The Thermo-Loc comes from GRS Engraving.  I think there might also be a similar product called Jet-Set.
Thanks guys.

Jim