Forging Spoons

[bajajoaquin]

So I've seen lots of threads on materials and construction techniques, but I'm having trouble making the bowl of my spoons come out even. The edges are all lumpy and misshapen.

I'm assuming that it's a factor of making my initial "bulb" on the end uniform, and then hammering out to a uniform thickness. But are there any tips for getting that uniformity consistently?

[beth]

ive not made a spoon but would like to for a present for a friend of mine so am interested in this thread- i would say like you thought yourself that if uniformity is what youre after then try to achieve that at every stage before moving on. alot of this stuff is to do with getting your eye in and practice and all that stuff - but you can minimise final damage by keeping close close eye on uniformity at every stage..?

[ThomasPowers]

The edges get filed on mine.

The head of a railroad spike ground to a smooth dome can make a nice plannishing stake for a tableware spoon.

[teenylittlemetalguy]

A ruffled edge means you have to much material on the edge. either start with an almond shaped bulb and hit the edges less, or hammer the edge thicker (shrinking).
To shrink an edge get it hot, touch the bottom of the ruffles on the anvil till it just loses color, then hammer the hot material down into itself like upsetting, just don't go too far and collapse the valley you made and create folds.
doing this a few times increases the thickness of the edge but reduces the circumference.
By far easier to just start with a more almond shaped bulb.

[Francis Trez Cole]

a swedge block with a spoon impression helps a lot

[Old N Rusty]

Laurel Machine and Foundry Laurel Mississippi casts swage blocks with several size spoons one side dish shapes on the other

[bajajoaquin]

The edges get filed on mine.

The head of a railroad spike ground to a smooth dome can make a nice plannishing stake for a tableware spoon.

A ruffled edge means you have to much material on the edge. either start with an almond shaped bulb and hit the edges less, or hammer the edge thicker (shrinking).
To shrink an edge get it hot, touch the bottom of the ruffles on the anvil till it just loses color, then hammer the hot material down into itself like upsetting, just don't go too far and collapse the valley you made and create folds.
doing this a few times increases the thickness of the edge but reduces the circumference.
By far easier to just start with a more almond shaped bulb.

Thanks, that's some good insight.

And I'm happy to read that Thomas files his, too. Although I'm still filing more than I want to or should, nice to know that, even after getting it down, I'm still likely to have some touch-up to do.

[bigfootnampa]

I use a flap sander on mine... usually don't have too much adjustment though. You may have a bit too much material in the bowl area to begin with.

[peacock]

Forge a blunt 4 sided taper on a piece of square stock. Fuller around stock to start handle.
If using 5/8 stock this mass needs to be about 1 1/8 long. place the tapered part on the anvil
on the diamond (corner on the anvil) strike the top corner. much like making a leaf the other
2 corners become the the edge of the spoon. if you use a rounding hammer and thin the center
of the mass without hitting the edge the bowl will cup.
finish over a stake and/or a swage.

Thomas, thanks for the RR spike idea the head is an ideal shape. I think you could heat the
spike head and use that to burn a depression into an end grain wood stump, then sink the
spoon into the depression with the spike head. I have to try that after supper.

[Marksnagel]

The spike idea sounds great, thanks Thomas.

There was a BP or post about using a 2 5/8ths trailer ball to make candle cups. That seems like it should work out pretty good for spoons too except for the flat spot on the head. I'm sure that you could work around that though. Just my thoughts.

Mark<><

[FieryFurnace]

So I've seen lots of threads on materials and construction techniques, but I'm having trouble making the bowl of my spoons come out even. The edges are all lumpy and misshapen.

I'm assuming that it's a factor of making my initial "bulb" on the end uniform, and then hammering out to a uniform thickness. But are there any tips for getting that uniformity consistently?

Make the bulb on the end over, and over, and over again! Practice makes perfect! That is going to get you consistentcy. I still have trouble getting them even, and I've seen some guys who have a TON more experience and knowledge then I do, saying that they use files and grinders too. Concentrate on getting them as even as you can. That part will improve with time, but do not throw a spoon out because it's not even. Just hit it with a file.
A swage-block does help but an oak stump works pretty much the same.

[ThomasPowers]

An old armourer's trick with flat headed hitch balls: cut them off the stem leaving a slight amount of stem attached to the ball and then flip the ball over and weld the flat to the sq stock to fit in the hardy hole. It is then easy to dress the top to make it spherical.

Or do what I do and pick up any dome headed hitch balls you find cheap at the fleamarket---I have a number of them and it's handy to have one that fits in the tooling holder of my screwpress, one that was "fitted" in a piece of pipe that was then fitted on the other end for the hardy hole to make a tall stake, one for the post vise, another for a short hardy hole stake, etc. I pick up a couple a year for under US$5 a piece.

My big problem with the dressed RR stake is keeping students from trying to forge it into something else! I've had to add a spiel in my classes that "Anything with my tool colour on it is a TOOL no matter how much it looks like a piece of scrap to you. Folks abusing my tools are subject to abuse from *me*! (the other one I;ve had to rescue multiple times is the hold down for the anvil's pritchel)

Also it helps when dishing small items like a spoon to have *dishing* hammers, the face of which are smooth large radius arcs. Not leving semicircular dings in the metal allows you to forge much closer to shape and thickness. You can make these by grinding the face of a ballpeen. (note that the ball end is often too "pointy" as even a small diameter sphere leaves a ding in the metal!) Or by forging the face and then dressing it---Weygers discusses this in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" as I recall. Or you can find a RR *bolt* that has a smooth dome of large radius and make it into a hammer. NOT A SPIKE, A BOLT!

Also you can make a hardy tool for dishing into by taking a piece of 4" sq steel tubing cut a couple of inches long, welding a hardy stem to it's outside and force fitting the end grain of a block of wood into it leaving it about 1" proud of the top of the "holder" and flat against the anvil face. Oak is great but anything but balsa will probably do---you just have to change it out more often.

Next variation is the same sort of thing but cast full of tin for cold work of thin sheet.

(I've done a bit of this over the years making cooking tools and armour)

[Marksnagel]

An old armourer's trick with flat headed hitch balls: cut them off the stem leaving a slight amount of stem attached to the ball and then flip the ball over and weld the flat to the sq stock to fit in the hardy hole. It is then easy to dress the top to make it spherical.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks I'll make one.

Mark<><

[rokshasa]

i found an old spoon swage in a busted granfather clock, it was used as a wheight, looks like a tea spoon. never really used it for making spoons but its nice for all sorts of things. i'll have to take a pic of it and post it.