Don A Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 I need some help with my forging technique when it comes to leaves and other similarly shaped objects. I am using round stock, and trying to end up with a somewhat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Pook Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 I think the problem is in your initial shaping. you need more of a sharp neck down were the base of the leaf starts and possibly a longer taper with less flat inbetween the neck down and the start of your taper. hope that helps. edit: The way I hand forge leafs is to first draw a 4 sided taper for the leaf tip, then hold the piece over the far edge of the anvil and forge a shoulder in were the end of the leaf will be. I then flatten the leaf shape on the diaganol (put the corner down on the anvil). then hammer it flat and then spread it more if needed using the cross pien...then add details like viening. by changing the length and angle of taper, the shoulders point I can change the leafs shape. If i leave a longer flat section between the taper and the shoulder or don't define the shoulder enough i get your second shape. if you want that heart shape your initial shape needs to look sorta heart shaped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Thomas Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 Don: This is a beautiful question and goes right to the heart of forging. Every pun intended. In making this leaf, as in every forged item, look at the amount of material you will need when you are done hammering from the top. This is the "set up". This defines what you have to do to get there from here. On this leaf, which is more or less flat, you will need a bunch of material down at the wide part, and almost none at the top. Then you want a definite change in profile for the stem. So you do what Chris said... draw a sharp taper, and neck the boundary for the leaf stem. It should look a bit like an upside down short stubby carrot. Then just hammer it flat on the anvil. Of course there are a zillion wonderful variations on this, but it is all in the "set up". The idea is to figure out what material you need so that when you do the final hammering flat, it just HAS to become what you intended. Put the volume there... and it will naturally move where you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 You need to form the point/end of your material into a little taper first, then form the kneck/shoulder, then flatten the whole thing out, keeping the part where the neck meets the "head" right on the corner of the anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Smith Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 A friend of mine lives in an older area of Perth, and has a gate at the front of her house with almost this kind of thing on it. I dunno if it helps, but I'd say that, looking at it, the points were forged to a square, then flattened on the diagonal (ie. with the "square" sitting on one edge). There is the imprint of the anvil edge on them, so I'd say they were resting on the very edge of the anvil. Does that description help? I'm not much for explanations :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strine Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I agree with Chris. A long taper is the go. With the necking, and I'm not sure this is different to Chris' method, I hit half on half off the anvil at the location of the neck, repeating after a 1/4 turn one way or the other. the return to the original position (I make no attempt to round anything, i.e. I end up with a square neck and square taper). This way, in cross section, the square of the neck is nestled into one corner of the square of the what will be the leaf part. I then lay the neck part down and flatten the leaf. It is very difficult to round the stalk and not damage the flat of the leaf. To overcome this problem I include part of the flat part of the leaf when rounding the stalk. BTW this was a chance discovery...learn by your mistakes!! The result is a nice transition from stalk to leeff. The pickies might help. And if all else fails grab a bit of modelling clay and play with that till you've nutted out the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I agree with Mr. Smith. Forging a square taper and then hammering on the diagonal ( hammer down on the sharp part of the forged taper) seems to work best for me. I also use a homemade rounding hammer ( engineers hammer with one ball end, one rounded face ) to drive the stock out. I too forge the stem on far side and try to get the largest transition between small stem and large leaf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I'm with Ed on this one, and Strine as well (the modelling clay idea is a winner, Dan Davie a world Champ uses modeling clay a lot to plan out forgings in case you need further proof) Its all in how you set up the material before you flatten it. A lot of Smiths have showed me their take on leaves and all of them got the metal 'set' before they flattened it so that the shape of the final leaf came out. For a heart shape you need a thick section after a thin neck, with an almost sharp shoulder between the two. The best thing is to grab the clay and model it out so you can see it come together yourself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Fantastic. Thanks to all for the instruction and input. It'll be Saturday before I can fire the forge, but I am looking forward to applying all of the above. I'll try to follow up with some pics if this project ever materializes. I appreciate the help. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Pook Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I agree with Chris. A long taper is the go. With the necking, and I'm not sure this is different to Chris' method, I hit half on half off the anvil at the location of the neck, repeating after a 1/4 turn one way or the other. the return to the original position (I make no attempt to round anything, i.e. I end up with a square neck and square taper). This way, in cross section, the square of the neck is nestled into one corner of the square of the what will be the leaf part. I then lay the neck part down and flatten the leaf. It is very difficult to round the stalk and not damage the flat of the leaf. To overcome this problem I include part of the flat part of the leaf when rounding the stalk. BTW this was a chance discovery...learn by your mistakes!! The result is a nice transition from stalk to leeff. The pickies might help. And if all else fails grab a bit of modelling clay and play with that till you've nutted out the problem. thats the way I do it. Hard to think about putting it in words sitting at the keyboard instead of in the shop showing someone I use the same basic operation on the power hammers as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Nice stuff STRINE!!!!!!!!!!!! I agree with the hammering on the square thing, after forming the neck/shoulder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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