{"id":2248,"date":"2013-07-14T22:15:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T22:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2248"},"modified":"2013-07-14T22:23:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T22:23:50","slug":"press-forming-adventures-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2248","title":{"rendered":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>The original “encouraging failure,” above.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve begun cutting out the hummingbird press die from a 5\/8 x 5\/8 inch square piece of O-1 carbon steel I normally use for making my knives. \u00a0Why O-1 and not mild steel? \u00a0I had it on hand and it was the right size. \u00a0No other reason…
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/a>The above two images are of the finished press die and the original\u00a0“encouraging failure” hummingbird skull. \u00a0Note that I’ve drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole through the skull of the press die, before I cut out the profiles of the hummingbird skull. \u00a0That will hold the skull securely to the “pusher” I’ll turn from aluminum.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above is the first copper sheet pressing on the die. \u00a0Since this is a considerably smaller die than the owl skull, it only took three pressings to get this far rather than the four it took for the owl.<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/a>Above, the completed die and the completed first pressing.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>There’s been a little madness to my method here. \u00a0Above, I’ve made another pressing and am going to shorten the beak to make a tiny raven skull. \u00a0If you think about it, this partially-formed hummingbird skull shape is pretty generic for a lot of different birds, if you ignore the long beak. \u00a0You can also see the specialty pitch block I made up for this press die as well.<\/p>\n

By the way, I made the press die extra tall just for this reason. \u00a0There are a lot of different bird skull this basic form will be appropriate for, saving me a bit of labor making different press dies.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>The above two images show the press die, a normal pressing and the finished raven skull.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Above, I’ve completed a copper humming bird skull and a silver version as well. \u00a0Now to make a pendant from the silver one. \u00a0I don’t know what the copper one will become yet.<\/p>\n

I guess I should also tell you that after cutting the hummingbird skull free from the metal sheet, I take it to the anvil and carefully forge the open bottom of the beak closed on the anvil, with a tiny hammer. \u00a0Picture a tapered tube, with overlapping bottom edge. \u00a0Note that I don’t do that for the raven-style beak.<\/p>\n

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

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 … 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-Ag","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2292,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2292","url_meta":{"origin":2248,"position":0},"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":2248,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":5506,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=5506","url_meta":{"origin":2248,"position":2},"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":2361,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2361","url_meta":{"origin":2248,"position":3},"title":"Hummingbird Art Basket – More Adventures in Press Forming","date":"October 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another little art basket my wife and I collaborated on. \u00a0This little hummingbird basket is about three inches in diameter. The basket itself is made from ziricote (the rim and base) and is woven with waxed Irish linen. \u00a0The pyrographed lid is from an antique piece of old-growth cherry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Basket"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Hummingbird_Skull_Basket_web_2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3960,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3960","url_meta":{"origin":2248,"position":4},"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":2143,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2143","url_meta":{"origin":2248,"position":5},"title":"Press-Forming Adventures Part 1","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Above images courtesy of BladeGallery.com And a work-in-progress image of my own. In the past I've experimented with carving bird skulls from antler, and some with small helmets. \u00a0While they proved popular, all of the above works were terribly labor intensive. \u00a0While stumbling around the Internet, I found some videos\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Press_Formed_Owl_Skull_Pendant_16.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248"}],"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=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2266,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions\/2266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}