THE LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY.
Working in Metals

THE LIBRARY
OF WORK AND PLAY

Copyright 1911, by Underwood & Underwood

Even a Boy Can Learn How to Make a Horseshoe

WORKING IN METALS

By CHARLES CONRAD SLEFFEL

Wide Experience in Practical Shop Work and for 12 years Instructor in Metal Work at the Horace Mann School, Teachers' College, New York

Garden City New York

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1916

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to the Teachers College of Columbia University for their courtesy in permitting certain of the photographs to be taken for this volume.

CONTENTS

PART I

ILLUSTRATIONS

WORKING IN METALS

I
INTRODUCTORY

What a pretty copper box, John. Where did you get it?"

"I made it."

"You made it?"

"Yes, out of sheet copper in my room last night. That's the way I spend my evenings. And such fun as it is! I enjoy every minute of the time. Mother says I'd work all night if she didn't stop me.

"I'd like to do something like that. Do you think I could learn to do it?"

"I'm sure you could. Do you know the blacksmith around the corner? He taught me how to do this work, and ever so much more. He got me the tools, too. He says every boy can learn to work with metals, so I thought I'd try it. I'll take you around to see him sometime. Come up to my room and I'll show my workshop and all the tools I use."

"It would be mighty nice to know how to do something else besides running an elevator all day. I get so tired of that. How long would it take me to make a box like this one?"

"Not very long if you begin in the right way. I've worked at it only since I left school. The manual training I got there helped me to know how to handle the tools. You had that training, too, and I know it will help you. Here we are, this is my workshop and bedroom. Let's work here together and I'll teach you all I know: how to use the tools and just what to do."

So began two boys to do work that one had done—metal work which any boy can do if he will but take the trouble to get the tools and have the patience to learn the way step by step.

"You don't need a large room for your workshop, you see," said John. "The table here is my work bench and all the tools can be put into a box out of the way when you are not using them.

"Here are my sketches of the tools one needs to make almost anything out of copper, brass, or silver. The blacksmith made the drawings for me and taught me how to make some of the tools myself. He says every boy should learn to make his own tools and I shan't be satisfied until I can make them all. Then I can make them as I need them and only those that fit the work best. But I had to buy most of them to start with. Here they are."

II
TOOLS

These are my shears. They are sometimes called jewellers' snips. I use them for cutting copper, wire, and my designs. You can buy them at any hardware store. But be sure to get a good pair, as they are needed for so many things.

I do all my measuring with a steel square. You see it takes the place of a two-foot rule. It's useful for squaring up, too. See, it has the ¹⁄₁₆, ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₂, ³⁄₄, and 1-in. spaces.

My dividers are my compasses. I draw circles, mark pieces, and find centres with them. The pliers are used to twist the binding wire and to hold the metal when it is to be heated, or soldered, etc.

You can get a wooden block like this anywhere. Hard wood is best. This block is 6 × 4 × 4 ins. You see, I cut out a hollow bowl-shaped place in the top. When I want to work a flat piece of copper into a rough bowl shape, I hammer it into the depression. The opposite end of the block, which is flat, is useful in many ways, too.

Bench vise

I couldn't get along without my bench vise. Here it is; made of metal. It can be fastened to a table as well as to a bench. It holds any tool used for shaping and also the metal when I wish to file it.

This piece of ³⁄₈-in. hexagonal steel, 5 in. long, tapered at one end down to ¹⁄₁₆-in., is a punch for making or pressing holes in copper or silver. The size of the hole depends upon the length you drive the punch into the metal.

The centre-punch is made like this one, but the end is ground to a point.

Raising hammer

Here are my hammers. I have three and a wooden mallet. The raising hammer is used for many things which you will learn as you get on. You see one end is somewhat rounded. You can pound away on the copper with this hammer and have no fear of driving holes into the metal. It's the first hammer I use to shape up the metal bowl with.

Shaping hammer

The shaping or driving hammer is flat at one end and rounded at the other. Its bent head is shaped so that you can use it in places where a straight headed hammer won't go. It's the only hammer to use when you work on the outside of boxes or bowls to shape them up.

Sometimes lumps are left on the surface of the copper after the raising hammer has been used. These are smoothed away with the planishing hammer. Its broad end flattens these rough places and makes the surface perfectly level before going on with the work.

Planishing hammer

Wooden mallet

A wooden mallet is often used in place of the heavier hammer. If a light stroke is needed it can be used without danger of marring the metal, as wood is so much softer than the metal itself.

You'll need some files to reduce the metal to certain sizes. I have four: a bastard, 12-in.; a mill cut, 8-in.; a half round mill cut, and one round ¹⁄₂-in. mill cut. Then I have one half dozen jewellers' files of different sizes. Supply houses will always tell you the best kind to buy.

Cold chisel

The cold chisel is used in many places for cutting off material, especially for metals that are too heavy for the shears.

Gouge

Drill press

A carpenter's gouge chisel will be found useful for cutting impressions in wooden blocks.

The drill press is used to bore holes into the copper or silver when you wish to rivet or saw. You will need a half dozen drills for your work. The ¹⁄₁₆-in. drills are the size I like best.

With a jewellers' saw frame like this you can cut any design out of copper or silver. The fine saws are very cheap and one will last you a long time if you take care of it.

Jewellers' saw frame

Round stake

Round stake anvil

Here are the tools I use to finish shaping my bowls on. This round top stake is put into my bench vise, where it is held tight. Then I put my bowl on it after I have shaped it as much as I can on the hard wood block. I can then go on shaping it as I choose, but if the bowl is very deep you must use the anvil stake instead of the round top stake.

Combination stake

Here is a tool which is a combination of anvil stake and riveting tool. I use it for drawing out pieces of copper into different shapes; flattening round pieces, rounding up flat ones, and for riveting pieces of metal together, as you must do when you make a piece of work like my box.

Here is a little fire screen I made myself. You need one, you know, to put your metal in, at times, for annealing and soldering. It's a safe way to prevent the blaze burning the table or setting fire to anything. I take two pieces of board, each 6 × 12 × ⁷⁄₈ ins. (any kind of lumber will do). Nail the two 12-in. edges of the boards together, at right angles to each other. Nail this to a base and line the whole inside with asbestos. You can place any piece of metal you wish to heat in this corner and direct a flame upon it with perfect safety.

All the heat I need comes from a gas burner. Here I have a bunsen burner, and for such work as I do on rings, scarf pins, hat pins, etc., or for any work that doesn't need lots of heating in the process, the bunsen burner will do. But for annealing, which you have to do when you make bowls, or for soldering, when you make boxes, you must have a stronger flame. Then I use the gas range in the kitchen or the bellows blower and blow pipe. If you happen to be where you can't get a gas flame, an alcohol lamp with a mouth blow pipe can be used.

Bunsen burner

Bellows

Blow pipe

Fill the alcohol lamp with denatured alcohol (bought at any drug store). Light it. With the large end of the blow pipe in your mouth and the small end about ¹⁄₄ in. above and a little to the right of the flame, blow gently. This little blue flame will give you heat enough to solder small pieces. Even a small wood fire would give you heat enough to anneal any size pieces you wish. "Must I learn to make all these tools before beginning?"

"Oh, no, you'd better buy your tools; they don't cost very much. Then we can start to make something right away. The first thing you must do is to design the piece of work you are going to make. I made a bowl first."

"But I can't design."

"Neither could I when I began. You won't find it hard after you have once made a start."

"Let's begin now, John, I want to make something."

"I know you do," said John. "That's the way I felt. Now, I'm the teacher and you must do as I tell you until you can plan for yourself. Here are pictures of a lot of things we can choose from: bowls, boxes, trays, etc. If a boy can make all these models he can go on and make nearly anything in copper, or even silver, he would like to make. Here are the bowl designs I have drawn. Of course there are bowls of different shapes, and some have covers to them. But we will try to get the shape that's most pleasing. Let's take this wrapping paper and draw a number of shapes on it, keeping the diameter and depth of each bowl the same. This model is 4 ins. in diameter and 1¹⁄₂ ins. deep. Let's make all our drawings of bowls that size."

Bowls

"Which do you like best?"

"I like the first one."

"Now that we've decided on the size and shape of the bowl, I must tell you something about the copper to be used. All sheet copper is sold by number, the higher the number the thinner the metal. Number 20 is a good size to use for most bowls and boxes. I use size 20 for mine. If you want a bowl to be lighter, use size 22 or 24. You can buy the sheet copper at any hardware store."

This Boy Has a Well Equipped Shop—He is Just Finishing a Copper Bowl. You See His Vise, Shears, Mallet, Hammers.

"Now you know how to make your design and you know something, too, about the tools and copper in general. We are ready now to begin the bowl."

WORK IN COPPER

III
HOW TO MAKE A COPPER BOWL

Here are the tools and the material that we need to make our first piece of work:

Material: 1 Sheet of copper, 20 gauge. Powdered pumice stone.

Tools: Hard wood block, dividers, shears, round headed hammer, planishing hammer, round top stake, mallet, files.

Wood block

Directions: Take the sheet of copper, and with the dividers mark on the copper a circle having a diameter a little longer than the contour of your bowl design. Cut this circle out with your shears.

With the round headed hammer, using the rounded end, beat the metal disc into the hollow of the wooden block until it takes on a fairly even bowl shape. Keep turning the metal with the left hand while you hammer it with the right.

The long even buckles are easily hammered out; the short, sharp ones are the kind that cause the cracks

You soon have a rough shaped bowl full of bumps and wrinkles around the outer edge.

These wrinkles must come because the circumference of the metal disc decreases as it takes on the bowl shape. So long as these wrinkles are long regular curves, they will work out all right. If they should take short, sharp shapes there is danger of the metal splitting. In order to avoid this be sure to keep the wrinkles hammered out flat as you work along.

Smoothing surface of bowl with the planishing hammer

If you went on hammering too long after your bowl is shaped, the bowl would crack or perhaps break, for hammering leaves copper hard and springy. So you must soften it before you can safely hammer any more. To do this I hold the bowl over a gas range until it is red all over, then I plunge it into cold water. This heating to soften up the copper is called annealing. Repeat the hammering until the bowl takes on the shape of the design.

In this way one can get the shape desired

Now take your round top stake and put it into the vise. Place the bowl over the round top stake, and with the planishing hammer, beat the surface until it is perfectly smooth, driving the metal just hard enough to flatten the bumps made by the hammering in the wooden block. If carefully done the surface will be true and bright and covered over with brilliant facets. A skillful hammer-man can really drive the metal in any direction he may wish. In this way you make a bowl out of one piece of copper. The top of the bowl will be ragged. Cut this rough edge with a pair of shears. File the top with a smooth file until it is perfectly true. A good test to make sure of this is to lay the bowl down on a plate of glass, or hold it up against the window pane. If there are still any tiny openings left in the edge the light will be easily seen through them. More filing must be done until no light comes through from the smallest space. This done, take a piece of emery cloth and rub the edge of the bowl until the file marks disappear. If you lap the cloth over the edge your rubbing will leave a rounded edge, which is just the finish it should have.

Marking the edge of the bowl

To flatten the bottom of a bowl: Turn the bowl upside down on a bench. With a pair of dividers find the centre of the bottom of the bowl. This is done by placing one leg of the dividers against the side of the bowl and with the other making a light scratch as near the centre as you can. Change the position of the dividers to the opposite side and do the same, but be careful that the scratch is light. Repeat this until you have done it on the four sides.

Where these lines cross is the centre. With one leg of the dividers on the centre draw a circle having a diameter of about two inches. Take a wooden mallet and strike down on the centre of the circle. This will flatten the bottom. Work from both sides of the circle and keep the rounding edge just touching the circle made by the dividers. If the strokes are too heavy the bottom will bend in like the dotted lines in the sketch.

Flatten the bottom

In that case, turn the bowl up and hammer from the inside. The bowl is now ready for polishing. Mix some powdered pumice stone with water. With a woollen cloth that has been wet and then dipped into the mixture, rub the bowl. This both cleans and polishes and at the same time gives a beautiful lustre to the surface of the metal.

IV
COPPER TRAYS

How to make copper trays (used for pins, hair pins, cards, etc.).

(1) Round. (2) Square or oblong.

ROUND TRAY

Material: Piece of copper about 7 ins. square, No. 20 gauge. A hard wood block, 10 × 10 × 2 ins. thick. Tools: Carpenters' gouge chisel, dividers, steel punch, shears, round peg of wood, 6 ins. long and 1 in. in diameter.

Design: Take a large sheet of plain paper. Draw on it a 3-in. circle. Using the same centre, draw a 5-in. circle. This gives you the plan or top view of the tray. Below this view on the same sheet, draw the elevation, or edge view of the tray. You can make the tray as deep in the centre as you wish. Let's make this one ¹⁄₂ in. deep, that's a good proportion.

Hard wood peg

This is what we call a working drawing. If you are pleased with the design, you can go right on with the work, if not, you can change it to suit. You can see by the design that the tray is made by driving the centre of this square plate of copper down into a depression. In order to do this we must make a mould the exact size and shape of the tray centre. This is what the square hard wood block is used for.

Take your hard wood block. Draw diagonal lines across one face. Where these lines intersect is the centre. With your dividers, using this centre, draw a 3-in. circle. Place the carpenters' chisel anywhere on the circle and strike with a hammer, driving the chisel down into the wood about ³⁄₈ in. Do this all around the circle. Gouge out the loose wood until you have cleaned out the whole depression, being careful not to go below ¹⁄₂ in. in depth (the depth of your design). Smooth this up nicely with sand-paper. The mould is now ready for the metal plate. With the steel punch, make holes in each corner of the copper plate about ¹⁄₂ in. from the edge and just large enough to fit the wire nails. Place this plate over the mould so that the centre of the plate comes right over the centre of the mould. Fasten the four corners down with the wire nails. To drive the metal into the depression we must use something softer than a steel hammer. A hard wood peg has been found to do this best. Cut a piece about 6 in. long from the end of a broom handle. Round one end up, using a file or a carpenters' chisel to do so.

Place the rounded end of the peg on the circle of the copper plate and, with a hammer, drive the copper into the depression below it. As constant hammering hardens copper so that it ceases to respond to the blows, it is necessary to soften up the metal by annealing as the work goes on. Take the sheet off the block. To do this, place the point of the chisel under the copper sheet close to the nail head and pry the nails out, lifting both copper and nail up at the same time.

After annealing, nail the copper plate in the same place as before. With the wooden peg continue driving until you fill the depression, at the same time flattening all parts of the metal that may push up. Be careful not to mar the copper at any time. When everything is perfectly flat and smooth take it off as before.

We are now ready to draw the 5-in. circle on the copper. The centre for this circle is the centre of the depression; and that is found with the dividers in the same way as you found the centre for the bottom of the bowl. Make the circle on the copper. With the shears cut along a little on the outside of this line. Smooth up and round the edges of the tray with a mill file. Rub out file marks with a little piece of emery cloth. If the hammering has been uneven some parts of the copper will have stretched more than other parts and the tray will not lie flat when placed on a table. To level this up, place the tray top side down upon a bench or table and strike gently with a mallet on the surface. Holding the mallet near the head one can control the blows and be able to strike gently. But if it is held toward the end of the handle the blows will not be uniform. This applies to all hammers, whether of wood or steel. You will notice as you do your hammering the high spots will settle down and gradually flatten. The tray is now ready for cleaning and polishing. This is done in the same way as you treated the bowl.

Decoration: Round trays may be decorated in many simple ways by drilling holes in the rim, and then sawing out designs to suit one's fancy, or they may be notched at intervals. Nothing is more decorative though, than the embossed or repoussé design, made by beating from the back and raising the metal on the face above the level. One of the designs given here shows the embossed, and the other shows a combination of the embossed and sawed out work.

The value of the mould: It may seem to you like a lot of work to make a mould just for this round tray, but it can be used many times for making this kind of tray and also for trays of similar shape, like bowl covers, etc. Most of the jewellery nowadays is made in moulds, wood, steel, or lead. Copper, silver, and gold medals, pins, rings, tea and dinner sets are all made by the mould or die method. This mould you have just made is only a simple one; however, complex ones are made in the same way. The skill all lies in making a very good design first and then in making a very smooth mould to fit the design. After one or two trials it comes easy enough. The chapter at the end of the book will explain die and mould making in modern copper, silver, and goldsmith shops.

SQUARE TRAY

Material: Copper, 6¹⁄₂ × 4¹⁄₂ ins. No. 20 gauge.

Tools: Shears, square, bench vise, round hard wood peg; dividers, copper vise jaws.

Design: Determine first whether the tray is to be oblong or square. This material makes a tray 6¹⁄₂ × 4¹⁄₂ in. Draw this size oblong on a sheet of paper. The rim of the tray should be ³⁄₈ in. wide. Draw an inner line all around, ³⁄₈ in. from the outside. Below this draw your elevation, or edge view, showing the depth of the tray. In this design it is ¹⁄₄ in. deep.

First see that your 6-¹⁄₄ × 4¹⁄₂-in. piece of copper is squared. Now draw your inner rectangle on the metal. To do this, set the dividers ³⁄₈ in., and with one leg against the edge of the copper, draw all around the four sides, marking the lines on the metal. You now have a flat sheet marked ready for bending. Place the sheet of copper between the vise jaws, the inner line even and on a line with the vise.

The hard wood peg should be cut to a flat tapered end. This flat end of the peg is held at an angle of about 45° against the copper plate, just above the vise jaw and against the line of the rectangle. With the mallet drive gently. By doing this the body of the tray is pushed in, but the rim is kept straight in the vise. Repeat this all around. You'll have a tray like the sketch. If the body of the tray is not deep enough put it into the vise again and keep driving it until you get the depth you want. The inner corners will be found to be rounded, as they should be. Round off the outside corners to match. File the edges round and finish with an emery cloth, clean and polish as explained before.

V
PAPER CUTTER AND NUT SET

Let's make a paper cutter like this sketch. We can draw the design on paper first and then cut it out. Here is what we need to make it.

PAPER CUTTER

Material: Heavy copper, No. 8 gauge, 10 inches long by 1¹⁄₄ inches wide.

Tools: Drill press and drills, jewellers' saw frame, cold chisel, files, vise, emery cloth, few wire nails (¹⁄₂ in.) two blocks of hard wood, one, 10 × 1¹⁄₄ × 1¹⁄₄ ins., and the other, 6 × 2 × ¹⁄₂ ins.

Cut out the design and paste it on the copper plate. If our shears could cut copper as heavy as this we would have little trouble to cut our design out. But the shears can't do this work, so we have to put the copper into the vise and cut the design out with a cold chisel and hammer. Place the copper into the vise with the line of design to be cut flush with the top of the vise. With hammer and chisel, cut along this line. The back part of the vise will act as a shear and help in the cutting and will prevent the copper breaking away and leaving the edge rough. When this is done, place the paper knife in the vise and file all the edges smooth. Now that it's cut out and smoothed up we are ready to saw out the design in the handle. To do this drill holes in the design as a starting point for the sawing. Take the drill press and put a ¹⁄₁₆-in. drill into the chuck. Drill a hole in any part of the design. Take the jewellers' saw frame and fasten one end of the small saw into one of the legs of the frame; push the loose end through the hole made by the drill. Fasten the loose end to the other leg of the saw frame so the saw is fairly tight. In order to saw properly, we must have something to support the piece while we are working on it. This is best done by taking a block of wood 6 × 2 × ¹⁄₂ ins. and cutting out a V-shaped notch in one end. Place this in the vise, or nail one end of it to a bench so that the V-shaped end will extend over the bench or vise to be free to work upon. Put the handle to be sawed out on this block so that it will be supported on both sides of the parts to be sawed out (see sketch of work in vise). The saw will play freely up and down in the notch. All sawed work is done in the same way.

Block for sawing metal

To file the edges sharp: Take your hard wood block, 10 × 1¹⁄₄ × 1¹⁄₂ ins.; fasten the cutter down tight by driving two short wire nails half their length into the wood at each end of the cutter. Place the cutter between these nails, bend the ends over, and fasten down (see sketch). Place all into the vise jaw and tighten it up. With a rough flat file, file the edges down, working from the centre line both ways. When one side is filed about half the thickness of the copper, bend the nails, take off the cutter. Reverse it, put it back, and file as before. Do this until the edges become sharp.

File the edges sharp

To finish this piece of work as it should be done, we must do some draw filing. The draw filing is done in this way: Take hold of both ends of the flat file, the handle in one hand and the end of the file in the other. Stand lengthwise of the piece. Place the file flat down on the blade with the teeth of the file pointing in the same direction as the blade. Push it from you and pull it toward you, at the same time pressing down on the blade. This is draw filing and it is the only way to make a piece of metal true, and free from the marks of the cross filing which was done in the beginning. Repeat this on the other side until the whole paper cutter including the handle is smooth. Wrap a piece of emery cloth around a block and rub all over the surface. Polish and finish as before described.

NUT SET: BOWL, PLATES, AND SPOON

A very beautiful nut set consisting of a bowl, four plates, and a nut spoon or a shovel, can be made out of copper. One uses the same tools to make this set as were used for the copper bowl, and the work of making it is done in much the same way.

Material: 9-in. disc of No. 20 copper (bowl). Four 5-in. discs (for plates). Piece of copper 2 × 3 ins. (No. 8).

Flat-iron

Take the 9-in. disc and hammer it into the desired bowl shape, on the hard wood block. The plate should be hammered up in the same way, keeping the depression in the centre of the plates about ¹⁄₂ in. deep. A very beautiful finish can be made on these bowls and plates by the use of the round end of the raising hammer and a flat-iron. Place the handle of the iron between your knees, face up. Put the bowl or plate, face up on the flat-iron and go over every part with the rounded end of the hammer. This produces a surface covered with oval facets, giving a mottled effect. The edges of the bowl and plates may be left straight or they may be rounded, according to the design.

NUT SPOON

Draw the design on paper. Cut the design out and paste it on the copper. This piece of No. 8 copper is too heavy to be cut with the shears, so it must be placed in the vise. See that the outline is even with the top of the vise jaws. With the cold chisel and hammer cut along the top of the vise as you did when making the paper knife. Now you have a shovel-shaped metal of the same thickness all over. Where the handle joins the bowl the metal should be left thicker than in any other place, otherwise the spoon will bend in the using. To thin out the metal of the bowl, hammer it. Begin where the handle joins the bowl and thin out to the edge. The handle is shaped by working from the bowl out toward the handle end, constantly widening and flattening it. Cut off the surplus metal, keeping to the original design. The handle may be left plain or some simple sawed out design may be put on. File up, rounding the edges off so that the spoon feels smooth and is comfortable to handle. Place the whole on a hard wood block and beat the bowl and handle into shape. Many nut spoons have designs sawed out in the bowl to lighten the weight.

VI
HARD AND SOFT SOLDERING

Soldering is a process of joining two metals together. It is not hard to learn to do. If you are careful when you do the work to have the materials to be used perfectly clean, you may be sure of success, for, after all, it's one of the easiest and simplest of all the operations done with metals.

HARD SOLDERING

Material: 1. Borax: bought in lumps, wrapped in tin foil, or pulverized.

2. Borax slate: a square piece of slate with a small depression in one side. Any piece of clean slate will do. This is used to grind the lump borax, or to mix the pulverized borax to a pasty condition on.

3. Solder: silver solder, sometimes called hard solder. It can be bought by the sheet in large or small quantities. Bunsen burner, or either one of the following: blowpipe and foot bellows with gas flame, a blacksmiths' fire with coke or charcoal.

Directions: The parts of the metals to be joined should, first of all, be scraped or filed bright. This prepares them best for the solder. Take a lump of borax, grind it up and mix with a little water, on the slate, until it is like a paste. Take a sheet of silver solder, cut a number of slits lengthwise down the sheet and then cut them crosswise. You will have a number of pieces about ¹⁄₁₆ in. square. These bits are dropped into the borax solution until they are completely covered with the paste. With a camels' hair brush, wash the edges of the metal to be joined, with the solution of the borax. Tie the pieces together with an iron binding wire, taking care to have the edges to be joined close together and in the proper position. If you don't, the solder will not fill up all the openings and cracks, and parts will be left unsoldered. Now, wash all around the joint with the borax solution. Place bits of solder at intervals along the joint, fairly close. Warm the work gently in the flame. This drives off the water in the borax solution. When the borax is quite dry in the joint direct a stronger flame over the whole work. Heat it gradually, but be careful that no part of the metal, except that around the joint, becomes red-hot, and that both sides of the joint get red-hot at the same time. If you don't guard this, the solder will climb to the hotter side and leave the other, and the edges will not unite. Cool it off in water and file the joint perfectly smooth.

SOFT SOLDERING

For mending teakettles, tin cans, tin cups, or anything made of tin, galvanized iron, or lead.

Material: Lead solder, comes in small bars. Flux (1.) Resin and sweet oil. (2.) Muriatic acid. (3.) Tallow candle.

Tool: Soldering iron (can be made out of a piece of half-inch round copper.)

How to solder: Soft solder is a mixture of tin and lead in even proportions. This solder melts at a very low temperature. That is why we can do the work with the soldering iron. I find I can solder many things at home with the soft solder, and I'm going to tell you how I mended a leak in the teakettle the other day. First, I took a pocket knife and cleaned all around the hole or leak, scraping the dirt off both inside and out. Then I mashed a little resin up fine and mixed a little sweet oil with it. Then I washed inside and outside of this leak with the mixture. After heating my soldering iron in a stove (any kind of fire will do) I took a bar of solder, held it over the leak, and melted off a bit with the hot iron. You can make the solder flow over the leak by pressing the iron right on the hole. You see, the heat of the iron melts the solder and at the same time it heats the tin hot enough to make the solder cling to it. Before the part got cold I rubbed off the oil and resin with a woollen cloth. This left the work nicely cleaned. You can mend any leak in anything made of tin, in this way.

Galvanized iron utensils are soldered in exactly the same way, but you must use muriatic acid in place of the resin and sweet oil. But if you wish to solder anything made of lead or pewter a tallow candle is rubbed over the place to be mended, instead of resin and sweet oil or muriatic acid. In every other way the work is just the same. But lead, you know, melts at a very low temperature, so you must be careful when working on it that your soldering iron is just hot enough to melt the solder and not hot enough to melt the lead. And now I am going to tell you how you can make your own soldering iron out of copper.

HOW TO MAKE A SMALL SOLDERING IRON

Material: A piece of ¹⁄₂-in. round copper, 3 ins. long, a piece of No. 8 wire, 18 ins. long, or a piece of light telephone or telegraph wire will do. Some soft solder. Resin and sweet oil. Small piece of clean tin. Manufactured fluid for soldering (used sometimes in place of muriatic acid).

Tools: Punch, vise, file, hammer.

Soldering iron

Place the end of the copper rod in the fire and heat it red-hot. Take it out of the fire and punch a hole about ¹⁄₂ in. from the end of the rod, large enough to allow the No. 8 wire to go through. Push the wire through this hole until half is on one side and half is on the other. Bend the wire close up to the sides to form the handle. In order to make this rigid, place the rod into the jaws of the vise and pinch the wire into the copper rod. This prevents any swinging motion. Take hold of both ends of the wire with the pincers and twist them close to the copper rod. This makes a good handle. Heat the copper end of the rod red-hot, and with a hammer flatten it to a four-sided tapering end about one inch long and ending in a blunt point. (See [picture].) Cool off in water and file the end of soldering iron smooth.

Now it must be tinned. On your piece of tin place some soft solder, oil, and resin. Heat the soldering iron hot enough to melt the solder, rubbing it up and down on the tin, mixing all together. Do this on all four sides, and in a little while you'll find the solder has covered the end of the soldering iron. When this is done the iron is ready to be used.

VII
CANDLESTICK, SCONCE, ROSE JAR, AND CHALICE

There are many forms of candle holders. Perhaps the one we are all most familiar with is the candlestick. Before the days of lamps and electricity the candle was everywhere. Many different designs of candlesticks have come down to us. Some were large, some small, some plain, while others were highly decorated. But however much the designs vary, there are many points that all have in common. There is the base, large or small, and a cylindrical shaft which rises from the centre of the base. This holds the candle. The drip pan is fastened to this shaft close to the top. It catches the wax as the candle melts. Handles are sometimes soldered on, and sometimes the candlestick is made without one. They are attached to the rim or to the shaft.

CANDLESTICK

Material: Disc of copper, No. 20, 5 ins. in diameter. One piece 3 × 2¹⁄₂ ins., No. 20, (for stem). Disc, 2 ins. in diameter (drip pan). One piece, ³⁄₄ × 6 ins. long, No. 16, (for handle).

Tools: Hard wood block, raising hammer, smooth file, dividers, saw, round wood peg, ³⁄₄ × 6 ins.

Directions: Beat the copper disc into a saucer shape, for the base. Take the sheet of copper for the stem, fold it around the wooden peg till the edges come together. Scrape and solder the joint with silver solder.

Drip pan: Take the small disc; with the raising hammer, curve it slightly to make a drip pan. With the dividers, describe a circle ³⁄₄ in. in diameter in the centre of the drip pan. Cut out this centre circle and make it fit tightly on the stem. Push it down about one inch, scrape the stem, and solder the drip pan to it.

Shaping the base

Handle: A strip of copper ³⁄₄ × 6 in. long. Cut a tapering slip off each side so that one end will measure ³⁄₄ in. and the other ¹⁄₂ in. Shape with the fingers over the round peg (place the peg in the vise to do this) until you have the shape you wish (see [design]). The wide end of the handle should fit down on the outside of the rounding part of the base, and the other end against the stem under the drip pan. Bore a hole in each end and rivet the handle in place. If a round handle is desired, take a strip of copper ³⁄₄ in. wide and 1¹⁄₂ ins. long, shape round with the fingers. Scrape and solder at the joints, and then solder on the edge of the base. Place and finish up each part as described. This candle design can be greatly varied. It can be made taller, shorter, with various kinds of handles, or with no handle at all.

DESIGNS FOR NIGHT CANDLE HOLDER

This kind of candle holder, or night light, is made to hold a short, thick candle about 2 ins. in diameter, which will burn from 6 to 10 hours. A round base supports the candle, and a shade with a handle on the back is fastened to the base. It can be adjusted so that the candle burns freely all night, while the shade protects the eyes from the light. Nothing is more convenient than one of these holders, for summer homes or for camping.

Material: Brass, No. 24, 3¹⁄₂ × 4 ins. for reflector. 6¹⁄₄ × ⁷⁄₈ ins. for cylinder. 2-in. disc for base. No. 20, 6 × ¹⁄₄ ins. for handle.

Directions: Picture shows a small night candle made of brass. Cut out a 2-in. disc. Bend the 6¹⁄₄ × ⁷⁄₈-in. strip to fit it. Solder the two ends of the ring and make it perfectly round. Be careful when rounding it up not to stretch it larger than the disc. Push disc into the ring flush with the bottom. Solder the bottom into the ring. Draw the outline of the reflector on the 3¹⁄₂ × 4-in. piece and cut away the corners. Bend it to fit the holder. It should cover about one half of the circle. Solder the reflector on. Soft solder is strong enough for this work. Now bend the handle piece according to the sketch. Rivet or solder it to the back of the reflector. Polish and finish.

NIGHT CANDLE HOLDER

The ordinary tallow or wax candle is used in this night candle holder. You will notice from the sketch that the general style is much like that of the small holder. However, in this design, a small cup or stand to fit the candle is soldered on to the base, a little toward the front.

Material: No. 24 brass—A 4-in. disc. 12 × ¹⁄₂ ins., for band to go around the disc. Reflector, 7 × 7 ins. Cup, ⁷⁄₈ × 2³⁄₄ ins., and handle piece, 6 × ¹⁄₄ in.

The reflectors are sometimes left plain, though the facets made by a flat placed hammer reflect the light when the candles are lighted and soften the light by day. The greater the reflecting power of the surface, the better is the effect. If each part is carefully filed and finished before they are all put together there will be nothing but the polishing needed.

SCONCE (WITH ONE CANDLE)

The sconce is a candle holder made to fasten upon any wall. It is both useful and decorative. Some are made to hold but one candle; they can be made, however, for two, three, or four candles. All sconces should have a reflector, a bowl, shaft, and drip pan. But the designs vary to suit the individual taste and surroundings. The design given here is a very simple one and one that works out well in copper or brass.

Material: One piece of No. 20 copper, 10 × 3¹⁄₄ ins., for the reflector. One piece of No. 20, 2¹⁄₂ × 1 in., for candle socket. One piece of No. 20 copper, 1¹⁄₂-in. disc. One piece of ¹⁄₄-in. round copper 4 ins. long.

Directions: Make a drawing like sketch shown here. Place this drawing upon the 10 × 3¹⁄₄-in. sheet of copper and cut the metal to fit the outline. Mark on this sheet of metal the embossed line shown in the sketch. Place the sheet of the copper on the hard wood block and with a chasing tool placed on the line, strike with the planishing hammer on the end of the chasing tool. This, in turn, will drive the metal into the wood. Repeat this till the outline stands out above the face of the reflector about ¹⁄₃₂ in. If this is done carefully the raised part will be a true smooth line. The same tool will widen the line any width desired. Cut into a wood block a form like the impression you see back of the candle. Place the sconce over this impression and with a wooden peg drive the metal into it. The dotted line on the sketch will show how deep this should be. Drive out any buckles that may have formed during the working of the metal. This is done by placing the sconce face down on the bench and striking down on the raised parts until it lies flat.

Candle holder: Bend the stock for the holder around a ³⁄₄-in. mandrel or wood peg till the two ends meet. Clean and solder these ends. Cut a ³⁄₄-in. disc to fit the inside of this and solder in. Place this on the 1¹⁄₂-in. disc and drill a hole through the centre of both.

Bracket for candle: Take the ¹⁄₄-in. round stock. Put it in the vise with one end projecting above, about ¹⁄₂ in. Drive down on this end, at the same time bend it as shown in the drawing. File the end flat. Cut a piece of No. 20 copper ¹⁄₂ in. × ³⁄₈ in. and solder it on the end just filed. This plate is drilled with two ¹⁄₈-in. holes, and filed around. Bend the shape as shown in the drawing and on the other end file a shoulder and ¹⁄₈-in. pin. This is now placed through the hole of the disc and the candle holder, and both riveted to the bracket. The bracket now is placed on the bottom of the sconce (see [drawing]), and riveted on. The whole sconce may now be nailed with round head nails to a flat ¹⁄₄-in. board to give weight, or there may be riveted to the back, angles made of No. 20 metal, ⁵⁄₈ in. wide and bent ³⁄₈ in. one way and ¹⁄₄ in. the other way. These angle pieces are riveted on the sides and on the two ends.

Rivets add much to the decoration of the work if they are placed at intervals and properly spaced. They make a nice finish. A hole can be drilled at the top of the reflector, to hang it upon the wall.

HOW TO MAKE A VASE, OR ROSE JAR (WITH LID)

Material: One piece of copper, No. 20, 7 × 7 ins. One piece 4 × 4 ins. (for lid). One piece ³⁄₈ in. wide and long enough to go around the opening of the vase or jar.

Tools: Round stake, anvil stake, driving and planishing hammers, dividers, and shears.

Design: Vase, having a base 2¹⁄₂ ins. in diameter, height 3 ins., 3¹⁄₂-in. opening at the top, and lid to fit. The full height of the vase is 4¹⁄₂ ins.

First operation

Second operation

Third operation

Directions: Take the 7 × 7-in. piece of copper and draw a 7-in. circle. With the dividers set 1¹⁄₄ in., using the same centre, describe a circle. This outlines the 2¹⁄₂-in. circle for the base. Drive up this disc as you did the one for the copper bowl on the wood block, making it as deep as possible. In the same way as you flattened the bottom of the copper bowl, flatten the bottom of this piece of work. Place the bowl over the round head stake. With your hammer drive on the outside. This driving with the hammer on the outside decreases the diameter and increases the length. You will remember that the copper bowl was driven up almost entirely by the use of the raising hammer on the inside and finished by work on the outside with the planishing hammer. This vase or jar calls for the shaping hammer. The vase is placed over the round stake and driven into shape by work on the outside with the shaping hammer. When the rough bowl shape is on the round head stake, drive the sides straight, beginning the strokes at the line of the base circle. Repeat till the sides begin to straighten and take the shape of the design. Take it off the round stake and place it on the anvil stake.

When the sides are symmetrical, mark with lead-pencil a line ³⁄₄ of an inch from the top. Work the copper above this line, over toward the centre, until the opening of the vase is about 3¹⁄₂ ins. in diameter. Smooth the work up with a planishing hammer. If the hammer marks made by driving the bowl into shape are carefully done they leave a very beautiful mottled surface of themselves.

Rim

Binding the flange to rim to solder

To make the rim for the lid to rest upon: Take the ³⁄₈-in. strip of metal. Bend it into a circle small enough to fit on the opening left at the top of the vase. Be careful to have this just to fit, otherwise much filing will have to be done, and in this position filing is almost impossible. Cut it the right length, scrape both ends, and solder. Make it perfectly level so that it lies flat when placed upon the bench. Test it by placing it upon the top of the vase. File the top flat, bind the rim in place. Wash, then place bits of solder all around it and heat it until the solder runs. Cool off in water, file off all rough edges left by the solder, clean and polish.

Bending flange on the lid

Lid: Take the 4 × 4-in. piece. Cut a 4-in. circle. Place the bowl upside down upon this disc, draw with a pencil all around the rim on this copper plate. This marks the diameter of the rim on the plate, also the line where the copper should be bent to form the lid to fit the rim.

With the anvil stake in the vise, place the disc against the sharp end of the stake, with the line on the edge. Drive with the raising hammer against the part projecting above the stake. Turn the disc, keeping the circle line on the sharp edge of the stake. Repeat this till the sides are at right angles to the top. Place the lid upside down on a wooden block, drive on the inside, shaping it like the drawing. Make it fit the rim, trim off the rough edges, file up smooth, and polish.

Do not forget constant annealing, for you know hammering always makes the metal hard.

CHALICE

Material: 3 pieces of copper, 6 × 6 ins., No. 20. One piece of round rod copper, 1 in. long. One piece of copper, 12 × ¹⁄₄ ins. (for rim). Solder.

Tools: Hard wood block, round head and anvil stakes, combination stake, shears, dividers, planishing hammer, raising hammer, and shaping hammer, files, emery cloth.