Last night Roger cut everyone a section of 100+ year old copper telephone wire. It had the most wonderful green patina on it, a scratched and weathered texture. We were instructed to anneal (fire soften) the impossible to manipulate copper, form it, anneal it again, hammer on it, form it again, sand and polish it to a shine.
Because of my love of verdigris you can imagine how hard it was for me to do the assignment. I would rather have had the bracelet green. Anyhow green would have been impossible because that hardened copper definitely wasn't going to bend without the fire (that removed the green).
Mine turned out as expected with the exception of one of the ends. When I hammered the end flat I hammered one end vertical and one end horizontal to the finish. Not comfortable on the wrist. So, I annealed it one more time and then hammered out the mistake.
Roger demonstrated the point of sanding the copper before polishing it on the tripoli and rouge wheels. Wow was there ever a difference! So, now I know that no matter how good the polishing wheel is, it's only as good as the prepped surface. Without the demonstration I would have been amazed at the shine without sanding. Because I always polishing by hand, the speed and shine of the wheel always seemed unbeatable. Now I know it's definitely worth it to do a little bit of both.
Roger also helped me with two "problems" I had with pieces from home. He generously shared a patina secret (it's just too good to put out there on the internet, but if you want to talk about it I'll share) that will enable me to keep the silver in my Mokume Gane at a high shine, while blackening/blueing the copper---something I used to think was impossible.
1 comment:
This is fabulous in it's simplicity. And, thanks for the description of your experience. I am loving this. By the way, do tell ... whenever and wherever you say.
K
Post a Comment