Artistic Sheet Metal Forming By Hammering

The tokyo based goldsmith yutaka nagai demonstrates how to hammer down a gold ingot to form a sheet.

Artistic sheet metal forming by hammering.

Proceed to the next row of marks and continue hammering. Transforming a single sheet of metal into an undulating organic form using only a hammer and stake is the art of anticlastic raising. Custom made english wheel and planishing hammer. The slip roll forms even curves in sheet metal little by little through multiple passes.

Use the drawn lines to guide your hammering. So on my way home from britishv8 2009 i stopped by weldone for a second visit and james kindly gave me a quick lesson in metal shaping. Mark both a vertical and a horizontal line through the centers of the sheet. Hammer across the sheet in one direction.

James has built whole cars from scratch. Tin smithing fun creating vintage style ornaments. The hammered metal will work harden while the unhammered metal will remain annealed. The lack of suppliers in this specialty type of work and customer demand has forced us to ramp up operations to accomodate the desire to have a one stop shop to get a new chassis and tin work under one roof.

Hammerforming and planishing are two of the most important and fundamental techniques of custom sheet metal fabrication. I use basic autobody hammers dollies ball peen hammers wood blocks tin snips bench vise and what ever. This leaves the metal full of hammer marks and one typical book of this kind then leaves readers dangling by saying when hammering has been completed smooth up and polish the metal it didn t take long to realize that he s a master of the art of hand forming sheet aluminum into things ranging from parts for antique automobiles and modern racing car bodies to airplane cowlings fairings and wheel pants. Proceed across creating an even row of marks.

It s a technique that requires skills far more complex than the tools used skills that michael good of michael good designs in rockport maine has perfected since the late 1970s. I cut off the lower portion of the cylinders and unrolled them. I rolled them back up by hand and reattached them. The art of shaping sheet metal has fascinated many people including me.

Sheet metal forming processes are those in which force is applied to a piece of sheet metal to modify its geometry rather than remove any material. It was easier to hammer in the spaces for the toes on a flat sheet of metal. The applied force stresses the metal beyond its yield strength causing the material to plastically deform but not to fail.