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Written by Christopher Lehr
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 19:13 |
 Well, it has been 13 days since I poured the mortar for my furnace and it is getting to be about time to light it up! However, to get to that point, I need to get some more work done for it to function correctly. The first image shown is my new blower. A few years ago, my father gave me an old down-draft blower used for an old kitchen range top. It worked fine, it just would not work with their new range. I had intended on hooking it up to suck out the fumes from my soldering in my basement studio when I was living in Murphysboro.
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Written by Christopher Lehr
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Saturday, 03 July 2010 15:55 |
 When I purchased the bulk of my forge, with it came a large melting crucible. From my reading of Cellini, he had at one point in time had to melt down a quantity of gold. He did not have a suitable crucible, so instead used a iron pot and simply lined it with a paste made of hardwood ash. So, hey, why not, right? Well, I will tell you why not. This particular crucible is too large to get the material up to temperature. If I need to melt down a quantity of lead, it will work nicely. Just not the White Bronze that I had to experiment with. The metal was from a casting project I had during my undergraduate work. When I attempted to melt the bronze in the school studio, I had issues with it because of the high amounts of zinc in the material... but, I will get back to this.
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Written by Christopher Lehr
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Friday, 02 July 2010 08:59 |
One of the things that I miss about working in the studio at Southern Illinois University was the ability to cast objects. In anticipation for some upcoming commission work, quite the motivator, I decided that doing forge smelting may not be the most effective method for melting larger quantities of metal. I have in my possession a couple of pamphlets that I purchased years ago that details how to do ' Backyard Metal Casting.' Well, I dug these pamphlets out, read them, and decided that maybe this would be the best option for melting down the amount of brass that I have already on hand. Also, I think that using the furnace may be the best route for cupelling the gold and silver that I have as well. (Cupellation is the process of rapid oxidation using heat and lead to remove any metal out of silver and gold... especially as these two elements don't oxidize.) |
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Written by Christopher Lehr
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Wednesday, 02 June 2010 14:05 |
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Well, in the lead up to Rag, I have been quite busy getting some armour done to help offset the cost of me attending this year. Let me tell you, that I look at the prices of armour on line, and am a bit baffled as to how these vendors can sell these pieces at such a low price. When I was working at Medwedeff Forge & Design, it cost Duff (my old boss) about $100 an hour to keep me employed. This was to cover not only my wages, but insurance, energy consumption and the like. At that rate, I would have to finish any number of pieces in an hour's time frame to even make them salable at a Dag (or any other) event. Even if I was just charging at my old pay rate, I really have to move quickly to make any of this worth my time. I guess it is good that I love to work metal and like the challenge of making these pieces... because, lets me honest, If I was charging what any armour should be priced at, then no one would want to spend that kind of money even on the simplest of things. Just a caveat though, I want you to understand that pretty much all that I am making is with the bare minimum of power tools; Belt sander, Jig Saw and Electric Drill. Everything else is done by hand, even the planishing.
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Written by Christopher Lehr
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Saturday, 22 May 2010 15:28 |
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