bowl raising, dishing tutorial

[richsc]

OK, so I don't know how to do this, but the thread on the sword tutorial made me wonder if anyone could post a tutorial on either/both the subjects of raising / dishing. I dished out a bowl without the proper forms and it was tough and very rough looking when done. Even a list of the right equipment would be great.

[Wes]

Greetings!!

When I dish out something on the smaller side, say a lid for a cooking pot, I have a round mandrel that I use to dish. Its hollow on the inside and lets me work outward to the limit of my mandrel. The I have a large 3 inch lead ball that I place the "dish" over to planish out my hammer marks. The lead is a bit on the hard side, but I have not found a pitch ball yet.

A good source for smaller dishing anvils are old tanks from oxy-acetylene torches, make sure its EMPTY, and has no pressure!! I reccomend a metal saw with plenty of coolant, or a machine shop could help you out.

I have also had success using tightly packed sand bags.

I have a cooking pot I need to make up, I will try to take pictures and post my steps.

Wes

[Cassius Tullius]

I had a decent sized scrap of bronze that I dished out to become a shield boss. I ballpeened an initial depression using an upturned BrakeDrum. Most auto garages have them as scrap.

I went to Midas Muffler. I explained i was a hobby blacksmith and I was looking for some brake drums. They let me have a couple from their scrap pile.

After the initial depression, I flipped the bronze over and spread the bronze to shape. It really helps to have a cut out of the shape you want your project to become. I was comparing, spotchecking and eyeballing the thing throughout the process.

A ball hitch was handy at first to hammer against because it allowed me to refine the circumferance and begin to define the downward slope. At first, I went back and forth between the break drum ( hammering down the depression) and hammering against the trailer hitch (to progress an maintain shape of the hemisphere). Then I reached depth of depression/height of hemispere to where my trailer hitch just wasn't doing it any more.

I have a bunch of old Breaker Wrenches that I got real cheap. For people who dont know, breaker wrenches are non adjustable wrenches that are made solid enough to be hit with a hammer ( more often than not a sledge hammer) in order to loosen recalitrant nuts and bolts. The larger, thicker ones are well suited to hammer against (the crescent that is). Some of them have -S- shaped handles which come in handy when your project acieves some real depth because the straight handle can get in the way sometimes.

Of course none of this hammering against metal is possiple whithout a good, solidly mounted vise.

When you have hammered your form to the specification of your cut-out, you are now half done. A good set of files---large broad files and some patience along with lots of elbow grease-- and before long you will ( about a day) be able to move on to sandpaper. Start with large grit and move down to smaller grit.

Hmmmm! Makes me all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

[Cassius Tullius]

One of these days I have got to make some dishing plates. :oops:

[Icelandic]

I'm not sure, but is this kinda thing what you're looking for? Arador Armory

[richsc]

Yes, that's the sort of thing! thanks. Of course, even here they make a few assumptions about the tools, but I can work this out. Great suggestion about stumps: I saved two cherry ones from a neighbor so this can work.