I wanted to take a metal working class this past weekend but I couldn't justify being away from my family for 3-4 hrs and spending $75 so I went YouTube and then to Lowe's and bought a few basic materials to try it myself. I now know that I need to find tutorial videos with women of my size because I have a few limitations when it comes to muscles. Therefore, I need a different set of tools than the big burly blacksmith in the video.
I originally purchased a copper plumbing tube and an awesome pair of tin snips and a $3 pipe cutter that allowed me to easily cut 6 1/2 in. of the pipe off. But as far as cutting down the length of the pipe, I had a bit more trouble with just the tin snips like the tutorial. My small arms would not allow me to pull apart the two pieces of cut tubing to allow the snips into the cut area in order to make a snip longer than the bill of the tool. I wondered if my pipe was a heavier gauge than his in the video. It must have been because it was not budging. I ended up busting out the Dremel which worked like a charm. I put the little circular saw on the end and went to town. Right down the pipe. I don't want to say like a hot knife through butter but it was close. Once the pipe was cut I still had the problem of not being able to "open" the pipe to hammer flat. I finally decided to make another cut to work with a smaller section rather than the whole 2 inches. I ended up with a quarter inch wide piece that widened a bit more after hammering anyway.
I hammered the copper flat and sanded down the edges of cut and snipped the corners off so that it was not sharp and then hammered it into a bracelet. There is a conveniently placed old sprinkler system in our back yard that served as an anvil. It is metal piping much like an old metal fence that comes straight out of the ground and then bends at an elbow. I'd say that was a selling point for me when considering this house. I forged the metal slightly to allow it to curve gracefully. I really feel like annealing the next bracelet would be even better since this style is a cuff and there will be some opening and closing of the cuff for the wearer. Heating the metal with a torch and then pickling it will give it flexibility so that the metal does not crack when it bends. I will just need to find another tutorial to figure out how to make a pickle bath for the copper.
The second cuff I made was after I went back to Lowe's to purchase a pair of sturdy gloves. I was afraid that I would slit my wrists on the sharp edges. Again, I couldn't find a pair of leather gloves that fit my hands so I bought a cheap pair of stretchy reinforced rubber ones that were OK. I also picked up a set of metal files to even out the edges. Sanding the edges could only get me so far but the file smoothed them down to a straighter line then I sanded the edges with the Dremel. The miracle tool. After hammering the metal you have to bust out the Dremel again with a wire brush on the end for polishing. It gives the piece a "finished" look.
The class I wanted to take was one for putting a hinge on a copper bracelet. Which I still want to do (by my self) but I think I needed to get the basics down first anyway. I would show you all the pictures I took with my new camera except I don't have a bay in my laptop to fit the storage card in the camera. I have got to get a new computer. I don't even have any photo editing software on this laptop. I will share the images as soon as I can get them off the camera.
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