Metalsmithing
We talk a lot about working with metal, but I realized the other day that we've never really defined what metalsmithing is. So I did a bit of research and gathered a few basics that I thought might be helpful to anyone just getting started. I hope it is helpful!
If you love what you see here and want to get started working with metal, consider our Instructional DVD Series called: Metalworking 101 by Patti Bullard. It's a great series and walks you step-by-step through several projects.
If you love what you see here and want to get started working with metal, consider our Instructional DVD Series called: Metalworking 101 by Patti Bullard. It's a great series and walks you step-by-step through several projects.
What is Metalsmithing?
Metalsmithing is the art of creating jewelry by manipulating various metals into beautiful forms.
These techniques include shaping and forming metal with hammers, mandrels, and other tools.
Artists may also saw with a jeweler's saw, cut with metal snips, or dome metal using a dapping set.
Other common methods include forging, fold forming, drilling holes for design elements, and using cold connections like rivets and screws.
Soldering, texturing with hammers, and metal stamping are also key techniques that bring metal jewelry to life.
Metalsmithing is the art of creating jewelry by manipulating various metals into beautiful forms.
These techniques include shaping and forming metal with hammers, mandrels, and other tools.
Artists may also saw with a jeweler's saw, cut with metal snips, or dome metal using a dapping set.
Other common methods include forging, fold forming, drilling holes for design elements, and using cold connections like rivets and screws.
Soldering, texturing with hammers, and metal stamping are also key techniques that bring metal jewelry to life.
Other specialty metalsmithing techniques include: (defintions included)
Chasing and repoussé shapes malleable metal by hammering from the reverse side.
Creates low-relief designs, a form of toreutics.
Etching uses chemicals to cut patterns into metal; engraving carves designs.
Electroforming fuses copper onto mediums like glass with low voltage for thick structures.
Electroplating adds a new layer, optimizing copper in art.
Raising forms metal over stakes using hammers to compress and stretch.
Swaging alters dimensions via dies, often cold-worked forging.
Reticulation heats metal for pronounced ridged, ripply surfaces.
Casting pours liquid metal into molds to solidify shapes.
Creating settings like bezels secures stones in jewelry.
Chasing and repoussé shapes malleable metal by hammering from the reverse side.
Creates low-relief designs, a form of toreutics.
Etching uses chemicals to cut patterns into metal; engraving carves designs.
Electroforming fuses copper onto mediums like glass with low voltage for thick structures.
Electroplating adds a new layer, optimizing copper in art.
Raising forms metal over stakes using hammers to compress and stretch.
Swaging alters dimensions via dies, often cold-worked forging.
Reticulation heats metal for pronounced ridged, ripply surfaces.
Casting pours liquid metal into molds to solidify shapes.
Creating settings like bezels secures stones in jewelry.
Metalsmithing Basics
Cold Connections:
The term "cold connections" means to join or "cold join" materials without the use of flame or solder.
No heat means more design possibilities!
Using a cold join, you are able to join materials that might otherwise melt in the soldering process.
The term "cold connections" means to join or "cold join" materials without the use of flame or solder.
No heat means more design possibilities!
Using a cold join, you are able to join materials that might otherwise melt in the soldering process.
Safety:
Safety first for metal jewelry making.
Wear safety glasses to protect eyes from flying bits when drilling sheet metal or other materials.
Use a mask to shield lungs from filing or sanding dust.
Metal particles trapped in lungs won't escape.
Wear earplugs to safeguard ears from banging and pounding noise.
Safety first for metal jewelry making.
Wear safety glasses to protect eyes from flying bits when drilling sheet metal or other materials.
Use a mask to shield lungs from filing or sanding dust.
Metal particles trapped in lungs won't escape.
Wear earplugs to safeguard ears from banging and pounding noise.
Jewelry Bench:
Set up a metalsmithing work surface that you're comfortable with. Ideally you'll need a drilling surface.
Clamp a piece of scrap wood to your work surface with a c-clamp and save your bench pin.
You'll also need a metal anvil or steel bench block for punching and texturing .
A bench pin (shown below: Deluxe V-Slot Bench Pin) is an ideal work surface to brace your metalwork on or against when you need to file or saw interior and exterior shapes in sheet metal.
Set up a metalsmithing work surface that you're comfortable with. Ideally you'll need a drilling surface.
Clamp a piece of scrap wood to your work surface with a c-clamp and save your bench pin.
You'll also need a metal anvil or steel bench block for punching and texturing .
A bench pin (shown below: Deluxe V-Slot Bench Pin) is an ideal work surface to brace your metalwork on or against when you need to file or saw interior and exterior shapes in sheet metal.
Finishing:
Finishing with files and sandpaper yields professional results.
Use files to round corners on rough-cut sheet metal.
Sand progressively with coarser to finer grits, starting low and advancing high.
Make sanding sticks using sandpaper and paint stirrers.
Needle files flatten rivet wire ends; round ones deburr drill holes.
Flexible shaft tools polish and texture sheet metal effectively.
Steel wool and polish pads provide final shine after patination.
Finishing with files and sandpaper yields professional results.
Use files to round corners on rough-cut sheet metal.
Sand progressively with coarser to finer grits, starting low and advancing high.
Make sanding sticks using sandpaper and paint stirrers.
Needle files flatten rivet wire ends; round ones deburr drill holes.
Flexible shaft tools polish and texture sheet metal effectively.
Steel wool and polish pads provide final shine after patination.
Patina:
.
Liver of sulfur is used to antique or darken the finish on copper, bronze, and silver.
You need only a tiny amount in a large bowl of heated water to achieve many different effects on metal.
Use rubber gloves.
Warm your metal, dip in the liver of sulfur bath, and quickly quench in cold water.
Dry it off and repeat until you have the effect you desire.
Use wooden or rubber-tipped tongs to avoid making marks on your jewelry.
If you patina your metalwork, and it's not too fragile, try a tumbler for a really nice polished finish.
Use one pound of jeweler's shot in the tumbler with a couple of drops of dish detergent.
Fill the tumbler (shown left: WireJewelry's Rotary Tumbler) with just enough water to cover the jewelry and the shot.
Turn it on for an hour or two, depending on how many pieces and the effect you desire.
.
Liver of sulfur is used to antique or darken the finish on copper, bronze, and silver.
You need only a tiny amount in a large bowl of heated water to achieve many different effects on metal.
Use rubber gloves.
Warm your metal, dip in the liver of sulfur bath, and quickly quench in cold water.
Dry it off and repeat until you have the effect you desire.
Use wooden or rubber-tipped tongs to avoid making marks on your jewelry.
If you patina your metalwork, and it's not too fragile, try a tumbler for a really nice polished finish.
Use one pound of jeweler's shot in the tumbler with a couple of drops of dish detergent.
Fill the tumbler (shown left: WireJewelry's Rotary Tumbler) with just enough water to cover the jewelry and the shot.
Turn it on for an hour or two, depending on how many pieces and the effect you desire.
Basic Metal Forming and Shaping:
Basic forming uses metalsmithing techniques that quickly bend sheet and wire into simple or more complex forms for jewelry.
Ring shanks and bangles are examples where basic forming is utilized.
Basic metal forming often involves using a combination of mallets, mandrels, stakes, and pliers.
Basic forming uses metalsmithing techniques that quickly bend sheet and wire into simple or more complex forms for jewelry.
Ring shanks and bangles are examples where basic forming is utilized.
Basic metal forming often involves using a combination of mallets, mandrels, stakes, and pliers.
Metal Forming Tools:
It is useful to have a good range of pliers with different profiles.
Flat-nose, snipe-nose, and parallel pliers are used for bending angles in metal.
Half-round pliers are used for making curves and are useful when starting to bend a strip of sheet metal to form a ring shank.
Round-nose are used for forming tighter curves and are particularly useful for wire.
A rawhide or nylon mallet will not damage the silver and can be used for the basic forming of ring shanks and bangles by hammering the metal around a steel mandrel.
Mallets are usually flat-faced and available in various sizes.
It is useful to have a good range of pliers with different profiles.
Flat-nose, snipe-nose, and parallel pliers are used for bending angles in metal.
Half-round pliers are used for making curves and are useful when starting to bend a strip of sheet metal to form a ring shank.
Round-nose are used for forming tighter curves and are particularly useful for wire.
A rawhide or nylon mallet will not damage the silver and can be used for the basic forming of ring shanks and bangles by hammering the metal around a steel mandrel.
Mallets are usually flat-faced and available in various sizes.
Texturing Metals:
Metal is soft and malleable and will easily receive pattern and texture from rolling mills, hammers, or punches.
It's important to prepare silver before texturing.
It must be annealed to make it soft, which will help it to take up the texture more readily (this is particularly important for fine details), and it will also prevent the metal from splitting.
Metal is soft and malleable and will easily receive pattern and texture from rolling mills, hammers, or punches.
It's important to prepare silver before texturing.
It must be annealed to make it soft, which will help it to take up the texture more readily (this is particularly important for fine details), and it will also prevent the metal from splitting.
Finishing Metalwork:
Finishing generally refers to the removal of scratches and marks on the surface, as well as the nature of the final finish, such as satin/matte or polished.
The type of finish given can transform a piece, so it is important to plan the finishing before and during the fabrication stages.
The finishing steps should start with:
Using a file to remove solder and any marks left by tools.
Sanding the surface with emery or wet and dry sandpaper is the next stage to remove firescale and scratches.
It is important that the various stages required to remove the scratches are worked through; this is a process of removing deep scratches by replacing them with finer ones until a fine satin or mirror-like surface has been reached.
If you're interested in learning more about Metalsmithing, take a look at our collection of instructional books and DVDS. We have multiple titles that will help further your knowledge of metalsmithing and the art of making wire-jewelry!
Finishing generally refers to the removal of scratches and marks on the surface, as well as the nature of the final finish, such as satin/matte or polished.
The type of finish given can transform a piece, so it is important to plan the finishing before and during the fabrication stages.
The finishing steps should start with:
Source: Silversmithing for Jewelry Makers: A Handbook of Techniques and Surface Treatments by Elizabeth Bone, Interweave, 2011
Materials
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- Category: Metalwork
- Technique(s): Dapping, Filing / Finishing, Forging, Oxidizing / Antiquing, Sawing, Texturing, General Education
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