{"id":2216,"date":"2013-06-25T23:15:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T23:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2216"},"modified":"2013-07-02T17:12:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T17:12:56","slug":"press-forming-adventures-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2216","title":{"rendered":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>Now it’s time to begin the finishing process. \u00a0I’m going to be “chasing” the final details here, so will be filling and embedding the copper piece in pitch. \u00a0But, since I intend to use my Lindsay Airgraver in the chasing process, I’ll need a fixture I can place in my engraver’s vise under the microscope. \u00a0To facilitate that, I’ve turned a hardwood cylinder (about three inches in diameter) and excavated a pocket for the pitch. \u00a0You can see some small pieces of pitch in the background. \u00a0I get my pitch from\u00a0Northwest Pitchworks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve begun filling the pocket with pitch. \u00a0I’ve already melted a layer of pitch in the bottom, and am adding more for the next layer. \u00a0I’m using a heat gun to melt the pitch, but a soft “bushy” flame from a plumber’s torch would work just fine as well.
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\n<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/a>Above is my copper piece mounted in the hardwood cylinder, and clamped in my engraver’s vise. \u00a0The cylinder is important here because it allows the piece to be rotated in the engraver’s vise and held very securely. \u00a0You can purchase similar inexpensive wood fixtures here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Here is the hardwood cylinder and copper piece mounted in my engraver’s vise.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Here I’ve penciled in the details I’ll be chasing in.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve begun chasing around the bone eye ring. \u00a0I’m using a 90 degree “liner” I made, in my Lindsay NitroG20 Airgraver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, you can see the 90 degree “liner” and a magnified view in the inset image. \u00a0I made this from hardened 1\/8 inch diameter piano wire. \u00a0At this scale, I need the business end to be smooth, but not necessarily polished.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve finished chasing in the bone eye ring edges, and textured the inner area with a simple hardened piano wire punch. \u00a0Notice I’ve also been further refining the shape of the tip of the beak as well.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve used my NSK micromotor and carbide burs to carve out the center eye circle. \u00a0You can see the little copper plug I removed lying nearby. \u00a0I found it was much easier (for me, at least) to carve the skull free from the waste copper than to try and hold it at the many odd angles it would take to cut it free with a jeweler’s saw. \u00a0But, that might just be a personal problem…<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above is the other side, and I’ve also begun carving away the base of the skull. \u00a0You can see the two sizes of carbide burs I’ve used. \u00a0I found the smaller one worked much better in close quarters like the tip of the beak.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above several images, other views of the same.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve used a small torch to heat the copper and get it to release from the pitch. \u00a0I don’t want to heat the pitch too deeply here, since I’m going to want to use this same fixture and pitch for the other owl skulls…<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Here’s the finished skull after cleaning it up with abrasives and files, along with an unfinished version.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, the finished skull after patinating, but before polishing the surface back a little with 0000 steel wool.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, a beauty shot of the entire process, start to finish!<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/a>And, finally, the finished version.<\/p>\n

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\nHere’s the finished pendant.<\/p>\n

Thanks for looking!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now it’s time to begin the finishing process. \u00a0I’m going to be “chasing” the final details here, so will be filling and embedding the copper piece in pitch. \u00a0But, since I intend to use my Lindsay Airgraver in the chasing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[23,28,31,35,11],"tags":[9,17,16,44,10,12],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-zK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5506,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=5506","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":0},"title":"Hummingbird Skull Reliquary","date":"May 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new reliquary project. This is the first of several elements, a 1075 carbon steel blade in my signature \"knapped steel\" style. Using a small drum sander, I'm carving in the flake scars that would be left from knapping stone blades... 1075 carbon steel blade, one of several elements\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/TomSterling_Hummingbird_Skull_Reliquary_15.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3756,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3756","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":1},"title":"A Tale of Two Ravens","date":"March 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A Tale of Two Ravens (dogtag pendants by Tom Sterling, March 2015) Top left image by Serge Panchenko (check out his excellent work at http:\/\/sergeknives.com) Above is an excellent example of why I\u2019ve been pursuing the press forming process. My intention is to produce a series of works beginning from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Raven_Silver_Helmet_Dogtag_4a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3960,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3960","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":2},"title":"Hummingbird Skull with Silver Helmet Pendant","date":"July 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new press-formed hummingbird skull , this time with a twist. Here are several pressings, and carefully forging away the wrinkles in the copper sheet caused by the pressing. Here's the beginning of the twist - I'm upcycling a failed silver pressing (it cracked!) to become a helmet. Trimming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Silver_Helmet_Hummingbird_Skull_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2248,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2248","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":3},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 4","date":"July 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the owl worked out so well, I decided a hummingbird was in order. \u00a0If you recall the \"encouraging failure\" from the first post in this series, I used the copper sheet pressing from that to chase a small hummingbird skull. \u00a0That became the model for a press die. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2292,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2292","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":4},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 6","date":"July 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Above are all of the hummingbird and owl press forming works I've been working on...an interesting ride, I must say. Above is the completed silver hummingbird skull and titanium pendant, with leather neck cord. Available soon at\u00a0BladeGallery.com Below are images of a Hummingbird Medicine Pouch. \u00a0This one is for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_35.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2273,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2273","url_meta":{"origin":2216,"position":5},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 5","date":"July 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm working on making a pendant from the little silver hummingbird skull I press formed during our last visit. \u00a0I'm engraving a piece of Grade 2 titanium for the back of the pendant. \u00a0I'm hoping the gray color of the titanium will coordinate nicely with the bright silver color\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hummingbird_Skull_Press_Form_17.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2246,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}