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Getting ready for John C Campbell


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I am leave in a couple of days to go back to John C Campbell folk school in Murphy North Carolina. I'm taking Greg Price's class "Light it up," focusing on traditional lighting. Anyone off of here going to be there???

I am using a design I found in a book, and I redrew it in full scale and modified it according to my liking.

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I have four water leaves to do and I have never done water leaves. Mr. Mark Aspery's you-tube videos for the ABANA curriculum were the life saver there. I made a leaf hammer from a ball peen and made a jig of sorts to fit in the vice for forming the leaves.
I used the video to learn how to make the water leaf.........I think his turned out better than mine. :D Hard to believe huh? LOL

Anyway, in addition to learning how to make the leaf, I also need to determine the stock allowance for the two different size water leaves I had drawn. These are my test pieces. I did determine the stock allowance after a couple of tries and I have a "routine of sorts" so hopefully I won't embarrass myself during class.

So here are the tools and the resulting leaves.
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This is the part for the ripples...
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This is the part for putting the "V" down the leaf center. (Not really a vein....)
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This is the hammer....
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These are most of the test pieces.
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Thoughts?????

P.S. Thanks to Mr. Mark for the very clear and fun videos!

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i agree with the clarity of mark aspery's images, i have has books. i really like the idea of using a ball pein to turn into a leafing hammer, and may be stealing it :P
i like the leaves. reminds me to try water leaves.......

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Hi Dave, good job on the interpretation of the water leafs.

The tool you used look a little awkward to hold secure when being used, here is a possible solution for you, these are a couple of stakes that I use when making leafs.

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The creasing/crimping tool what you use to form the ripples (Can also be used to form veins on acanthus leafs)

The V tool, used not to make a central vein, (water leafs don't have veins as such) but to establish the curved shape (both ways) of the leaf, and to curl the tip on

Water leafs are usually made from sheet steel and wrapped around and fire welded to the main scroll bar, The Cosira books you have seen have details on How to's try here
http://www.hct.ac.uk/PDF/CraftPublications/WroughtIron/WROUGHT%20IRONWORK%20PART%204_tcm2-18923.pdf

Hope this helps, and enjoy the course.

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Dave, good work on the drawing! I really admire your dedication and thirst for new challenges.

I wonder... John B, your leafing stakes looks fine. Would it be sufficient to go with mild steel for a couple of these, or what did you use? And what diameter stock did you use to form the grove in the creasing tool? It should match the hammer, right?

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Those are mild steel and were made years ago, Groove depends on size of leaf being made, that one had a 3/8"(10mm) dia bar fullered into it, the top sides are well radiused. Being slightly deeper into the bar would be OK.

Hammer head is 3mm to 5mm wide/thick to use in this tool, depends on the thickness off material being used, you want to form the crimp, not forge it.

The half section forged groove on the shank means it stays put in the vise when in use, otherwise they have a tendency to move, it could also be made with a shank to fit the hardie hole. I find it easier to work stood up to the vise, and suitable for demonstrations, as hardie hole sizes vary so much.

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I'm sure you'll have fun Dave, Campbell is a beautiful school. Please take lots of photos to share with us. I have not been there in 3 years, haven't seen the new shop yet. Sharpen up your dancing skills as most Fridays they have open dancing in the main building!

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Thanks for the info Mr. John. I like how your tools fit around the vice jaws.....very nice tools.

I too made mine from mild steel. I've made seven leaves so far and I haven't had any trouble with it shifting in the vise. I worried about that but I decided to give this configuration a try simply so I would have both tools in the vise at the same time. I left the vise part square and it is 5/8" stock so it gets a good bite. It could be stable because I am working with very small leaves too. They are forged from 1/4x1/2 FB. The blank before the leaf is formed is 2 1/4" long on the larger of the two leaves.

I was actually hoping at least on the two outside leaves to forge them as one piece with the curved bar. The inside scroll/leaf assembly is so small that it puzzles me. I will probably resort to forging the leaf separate and have the blown over leaf forged as the same piece as the entire scroll. That little blown over leaf is only 1/4" wide at the widest part. :o

Also a little bit about the design. I figured out how to draw the long curved bar but the scrolls puzzled me. So I started looking around on the site as I remembered a thread on scrolls a while back. Well I found a link to the BP on the "golden rectangle" and that BP is what helped me get the scrolls right.

So that deserves a loud appreciative commendation to Mr. Glenn and the administrators who work so hard to keep this site up, keep it clean, and make it the vast source of helpful information that it is.

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Leafs also used to be rivetted on, you could possibly fuller in a groove for the small leaf stem to fit into and either braze or rivet them in position, normally you would fire weld the sheet leaf to the scroll end and the fireweld this completed piece to the scroll body.

Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing the pictures of the completed item and what else you do on the course

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I took Greg's class a few years back and enjoyed it very much. At that time Greg offered some projects but also let people work on their own designs. Campbell is a great place to take a class. Good Luck!


I am leave in a couple of days to go back to John C Campbell folk school in Murphy North Carolina. I'm taking Greg Price's class "Light it up," focusing on traditional lighting. Anyone off of here going to be there???

I am using a design I found in a book, and I redrew it in full scale and modified it according to my liking.

DSC02074.jpg

DSC02075.jpg

DSC02076.jpg

I have four water leaves to do and I have never done water leaves. Mr. Mark Aspery's you-tube videos for the ABANA curriculum were the life saver there. I made a leaf hammer from a ball peen and made a jig of sorts to fit in the vice for forming the leaves.
I used the video to learn how to make the water leaf.........I think his turned out better than mine. :D Hard to believe huh? LOL

Anyway, in addition to learning how to make the leaf, I also need to determine the stock allowance for the two different size water leaves I had drawn. These are my test pieces. I did determine the stock allowance after a couple of tries and I have a "routine of sorts" so hopefully I won't embarrass myself during class.

So here are the tools and the resulting leaves.
DSC02131.jpg

This is the part for the ripples...
DSC02132.jpg

This is the part for putting the "V" down the leaf center. (Not really a vein....)
DSC02133.jpg

This is the hammer....
DSC02134-1.jpg

These are most of the test pieces.
DSC02137-1.jpg

Thoughts?????

P.S. Thanks to Mr. Mark for the very clear and fun videos!
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I've got a lot more pictures on my blog (linked in my sign off,) of the class but here are some of the project. I skipped the blown over leaf scrolls that were welded to the water leaves in my drawing. I just felt it overcrowded the scroll in this small of a piece. A larger version with perhaps five candles (one on the top of each scroll as well,) would look good with the blown over leaves.



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My dad, (center) and a guy we know took the oak casket class.
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Hello Dave,

Thank you for all the nice pictures of your work. I like the candle cups with the rippled edge. Could you explain a few details about how those are made? I was going to try to neck down a piece of tubing (whenever I can get my hands on some). I don't know if I even have anything to try and make that happen. Needing a little "how to" so I can make some as good as yours. Thanks. Spears.

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thank you guys!

I had a lot of fun making it. I couldn't have done it without the scroll drawing blueprint and Mr. Mark Aspery's videos on the water leaves.

Oh Spears: We used the 1/4x20 taps that you gave me to tap some of the candle cups. I was the only one that had any 1/4x20 taps so several of the students ended up needing it.

I will do a step-by-step on the candle cups when I get to the forge again.

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