hello,

 

I have been trying to make a ginkgo leaf key chain for my friend. However, I am having trouble making the leaf shape, it is very broad at the top and then tapers to the base. I know how to taper the base, but don't know how to make the top of the stock wide enough.

 

does anyone have a good ginkgo leaf they make, and can show me the steps?

 

any help appreciated.

Here's how I do them:

 

Start by spreading the end of a bar by peening, then knock in the corners to begin defining the outer curve of my leaf:

 

 

 

Then using my guillotine swage I isolate the body of the leaf from the rest of the bar.

 

 

 

I then start drawing down the section of bar behind the leaf. This eventually becomes the stem.

 

 

I repeat the steps listed until I've got the leaf fanned out to about 90 degrees and the stem necked down to about two or three times the thickness of the finished stem.

 

 

At this point I start working the leaf in the vise. With the stem locked into the vise I start upsetting the outside edge of the leaf. This pushes down the "wings" and builds up enough material to continue

spreading the leaf using a cross peen. While upsetting be sure to work both sides of your leaf evenly and keep an eye out the outside curvature of the leaf, you'll want to keep this roughly in line with what you want the finished product to look like. Also, be careful not to curl the leaf over on itself while upsetting.

 

 

Now I take the upset leaf back to the anvil and spread it further with a cross peen, going back and forth between upsetting in the vise and spreading on the anvil until I have the overall leaf shape and thickness I'm after.

 

 

Once the leaf shape is where I want it I isolate the stem from the rest of the bar and draw it out.

 

 

At this point I'll finalize the veins on the leaf using the sharpest cross peen I've got. I go with a low heat and lots of light rapid blows while turning the material on the horn of the anvil.

 

 

Then chisel out the center notch (some ginkos may have more than one notch)

 

 

Last I take a low heat (medium red) and using the step of my anvil I add a little curvature to the leaf to give it a little life. I also typically brass brush mine but that's entirely optional.

 

Freeman,

 

thank you very much for the quick reply and the Great!!! tutorial. your leaf looks great.

 

I was starting with round stock, I will try it with bar stock as you showed. looks like you are using maybe 2 inch by 1/4 inch stock.

 

PoundHound

My pleasure, I hope it helps! By the way, round stock should work just as well, you might try either upsetting your bar or just go ahead and start working it same as above. I typically use round stock when I'm doing smaller leaves like towards the end of a branch.

I make mine similar to the above but I do most of the upsetting first then neck the stem and then peen the leaf working the sides back in as necessary and the notch at the end.

I make mine similar to the above but I do most of the upsetting first then neck the stem and then peen the leaf working the sides back in as necessary and the notch at the end.

 

Any idea how long it takes you to make one?

Poundhound: If you log on to the Metal Artist Forum site, a woman named TeresaS has the most exquisite ginko leaves displayed that I have ever seen!!!!

  Worth a look!

Link for those interested: www.metalartistforum.com/maf/index.php?/topic/7396-new-work-bamboo-lotus-gingko-koi/

 

And yes, those are some very impressive ginkgo leaves.

Link for those interested: www.metalartistforum.com/maf/index.php?/topic/7396-new-work-bamboo-lotus-gingko-koi/

 

And yes, those are some very impressive ginkgo leaves.

I took a look at that site and here is a picture of the leaf created by TeresaS.

 

the key to the beauty of it seems to come from two things, the straight lines from the stem to the ends of the leafs, also the leafs are not just flat but seem to bend/move in a natural way.

 

I haven't timed it but I would guess under 15 minutes probably less if you take out the heating time.

15 minutes sounds about right, maybe a little faster than my way. I'll have to experiment.

Nice tutorial Freeman. Thanks.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

My pleasure, I hope it comes in handy.

I like square stock because after the initial isolation and tapering striking the piece on the diamond really gives you some good extra mass to spread. My PH method would work just the same with a rounding hammer on the horn, provided you don't have a hundred or so to do imho....The video just shows the rough in, they get finished by hand.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSmkpNe1kzg

Very nice hammer work. What is the hammer you are using?

Very nice hammer work. What is the hammer you are using?

Guess you didn't see it the first time you asked....:-)..http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/30814-aspen-leaf/

Does anyone have any idea how she does the grooves in the leaves? An English wheel maybe?  I see on her koi sculpture that she used the same technique on the fins and tail.

 

Ignorantly,

George M.