So yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a friend's house. He also happens to be a blacksmith. I got some great pointers on working with steel (as opposed to the non-ferrous metals to which I am more accustomed). In so doing, I managed to make some good progress on the shield embossing. The MAP gas torch, by the way, makes a HUGE difference.
So let's walk through where we are:
You can see from the white cloudiness that with the new torch, I was able to get the steel MUCH hotter (and consequently much more malleable). This then let me make some actual movement on lining the loftwing in:
The lines are a bit rough. You can see, if you look closely, it's more like a nearly-connected set of "dashes" made with the moving chisel.
Given the shield is so thick, this actually still produces a decent form on the front side. I will still make them smoother as I go as well as when I get to the full raising
stage of the process.
Now as you look at the front you'll notice the lines are not crisp. That is okay as the "chasing" part of the process is where those lines from the front will get more crisp. Here is what we have when looking at the front:
And from further out you can start to make out a loftwing on the front of the shield:
It's exciting to see the pattern start to emerge. I still have a long ways to go, but very reassuring progress!
No comments:
Post a Comment