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Decorative art metalworking blacksmithing design lesson
In the late 1800 s there was excitement and enthusiasm to take the crafts and technologies and knowledge of the diverse nations and cultures that had come before and forge them into a rational, perhaps even scientific approach to educating a new generation of youth to the joys of the arts, and the skills of the trades, and perhaps pave their way for a joyous and creative life of contributions to a new age.
This manual makes its mission to convey that enthusiasm as it surveys the tools and techniques of cold working metal, from scaling to repousse to nailing and other techniques elementary enough to show even newcomers the easy and excitement of making ornaments and art with metal, and yet also tries to set the stage with instruction in the tools and techniques to make the transition to hot metal arts, or casting and blacksmithing a natural one.
As the author so reasonably notes, developing skills in laying out and designing metal structures and seeing the possibilities, learning how to handle cold metal working, is an essential step to all the other metal working skills and trades.
Lesson I. Bent Iron or Strip Work. Introduction - Tools - Materials -Curves.
Illustrations: Bent iron ring, Making rivt-hole, Clamp and Clamped Work, Chain-work Clamped, Simple bends,
Vase or Eye Curves, Angles, Concentric Spirals,wave-lines, Ogives or Ace of Spade Curves, Samples of Curvature,
Lesson II. Making rings and curves into objects.
Illustrations: Stand for a Bowl, Hanging Hooks, Card Tray, Tumbler Stand, Wooden Bowl on Iron Stand, Glass Flagon on Stand, Candlestick.
Lesson III. Frames, borders, Figure work in strip or ribbon.
Illustrations: Hinged Bracket, Bracket for door curtain, Mirror Frame, Photograph Frame, Circular Panel or Frame, Book Rest and Support, Holder for Oil Lamp, Pattern for Three Chains, Sockets for Candle, Six-sided Hall Lantern.
Of Setting Glass, Mother-of-Pearl, etc,
Shearing, Chiselling, Fret-sawing, and Pressing.
Illustrations: Small Panel cut Metal, Fret-sawed Sheet Metal, Fret-saw, Inlaid Metal Work, Book Cover-Fret-sawed metal on a thin panel,
Old Swiss Sawed Iron Work (1537), Hinge-Plates, Brass Scrutcheons, Nuremberg Work, 15th Century, Corners for Books,
Illustrations:Border or Frame, Patterns for Metal Flowers, Inkstand, Ash Tray, Cylindrical Receptacle, Tankard, Tankard Inlaid with Coins
Repousse- Embossed Sheet-metal Work.
Simple exercises, Study of simple flower form
Study of Weeds, entirely in outline, with tracers
Nail, Scale, and Stencil Work.
Nails and Nailed Strips, Pattern for Nail Work, Complicated Pattern in Nail Work,
Scale Work, Scale Work on Wood, Scale Work on Panel
Stencil Cutting. Stencil Plate and Pattern.
Full of illustrations of designs and tips on how to create them and what to do and not do, this is a valuable resource and well worth a read.
Bringing arsenic or mercury or other toxic metals into any home is down right stupid and perhaps even lethal. Simply do not do this. Aside from a good way to kill or injure your family or yourself, it is, in fact, against the law in most civilized urban areas today.
So while the designs are great, the instruction good, just leave the chemicals alone if you are not expert enough to know what you are doing and have a proper non-home environment to handle them in.
Most such metal treatments have been supplanted by safe and sane metal treatments that accomplish the same end result today, with far less hazard.
OK OK so what about the rest of the book (since there are only a couple chemical issues in the whole book)...
This is a fun and useful survey of designs and techniques spanning most of European methods for cold metal working.
The author makes and interesting point that if woman knew how easy it is to make jewelry and decorations of their own design of great simplicity and beauty, much of the jewelry industry would be out of business.
Who would not prefer to make their own beautiful things than have someone else s designs?
So whether you are seeking to learn jewelry, architectural decoration, learn metal working skills in general, or design this is a very nice tome, worth a read, and fun to curl up with and stimulate your own ideas for projects ...
Good teaching manual, nice illustrations and designs, stimulating to the imagination, what more could you want?
