CHAPTER XXVII 
CONSTRUCTION 
Hollow handles—Compound mouldings—Fitting moulding to a tapering vessel—The folding iron—Square and round trays—Buckling in sheet metal—Fixing a tablet to a wall—Inkpot tops.


A number of points of construction are dealt with in this chapter. 

The building up of the hollow handle for a flagon, Fig. 293, is effected in the following manner. Cut a strip of metal thefulllengthofthe handle—measured roundthe curve,and AAddeenoughtomaketheinsidepart,DEE. Thehandleis, 
of course, rounded at the inside, flat outside, and tapering towards each end. The strip tapers in a corresponding manner. The outside, D F, is made from a separate piece. Bend the strips to the proper curve, ABC, and solder a piece of thick brass wire between A and C. You must use hard solder. The soldering will anneal the strip. Noav find a stake the end of which will fit into the curve D E F. A mandrel may do, or the pointed bickiron; or perhaps the rounded side of the head of the raising hammer. Held in the vice, a hammer-head makes a very efficient stake. On whichever tool is most convenient drive the edges of the strip round into the curve. It is necessary to stretch the edgestogetthemround, soyoumayhavetoannealthework beforeit willgofar enough. Watch carefully that you keep the axis of the work straight. Planish the handle all over before you remove the brass stay. Then mark carefully the profile of the edges G from both sides. Cut and file the edges true. And, holding a straight-edge across them, see that it is at right angles to the handle at every part of the curve G Avhen looked at from either top or bottom. When you are quite satisfied Avith this and with the curve of the handle from everypoint of view, bevel off the inside corner of the metal all along the edges G. Now take anotherstripofmetal, DF,aslongasthehandle, andalittle wider than the gap between the edges G. Lay it flat on the bench and run the burnisher or a round-faced hammer up and doAvn the middle of it several times. This will give it a very slight curve from side to side. Anneal the strip, and bond it round the handle, the convex side of the strip to be outside. With a steel point scratch a line on the strip against the edge G. Cut and file the strip to the exact Avidth required (DF). Then bevel aAvay the inner corners of its long edges. When the strip is put into position against the curved piece D E F, it should fit exactly, and the joins come neatly at the corners D and F. Of course you may, if you like, omit all the bevelling. The join in that case will not come quite at the corner. Borax the two long joins and tie the pieces together. To make sure that the two pieces are properly joined all along it is well to solder only two orthree inches at a time, temporarily bending back the remainder of the piece D F to allow room to place the pieces of solder inside. Take care not to buckle D F in so doing; nor must you allow the solder to Aoav along any part of the joint which is sprung or bent open at all. To make sure of this, do not allow the metal to get red-hot except in that part of the joint in which the two parts are in close contact. You can in this way gradually solder the handle from end to end. The thumb-piece, if there is one, can now be made and soldered on, as can the little pieces which close the ends of the handle. Do not omit to drill a little hole in the handle somewhere where it Avill not be seen, to allow any confined air to escape. 

To build up a compound moulding, say, for the base of a chalice, of Avhich Fig. 294 is the plan and Fig. 295 the enlarged profile. The principal difficulty will be to keep everything concentric and true in the fitting and soldering, 
so too much care cannot be taken in making each individual piece true in itself. The plan shows four curved pieces 
and four projecting corners. You will require a straight piece, long enough to produce the eight little pieces for the corners; and four rings for the curved parts. Rather more than half of each ring will be required, so in this case the segments cut aAvay Avill be useless. Suppose you make the rings first. The loAvest part of the moulding is formed from a thick strip bent flatwise into a circle. Do this as described on page 139. Cut each ring from the strip when it has been bent to the curve and trued up on the T-stake. When the rings are soldered you can turn them true on the lathe. If you have no lathe, file them. Take strips of metal for the next part of the moulding, H, Fig. 295. Join their ends and shape the rings thus made on a suitable stake. Collet hammers Figs. 133, 134 Avill be found very useful for this part of the work. You Avill notice that you may save yourself a good deal of hammering if, instead of using a straight strip of metal to turn round into the ring H, you use a curved piece, set out as described on page 249. A curved piece of metal 
so set out can be made, it forms part of a cone, as shown in J, Fig. 296. It is obviously easier to make H from a ring shaped like J than from a straight one like Fig. 297. You may find that a small hammer held in the vice Avill make a suitable stake for doing some of the shaping on. When the rings are correct in shape, wire them on to the moulding already made and solder them there. Take care to keep the joins in each ring and band in that part of the circumfer ence of the circle which will be cut aAAray Avhen you are fitting the various pieces together to form the foot of the cup. But though you keep the joins near together do not let them come exactly one over the other, they might slip and give trouble. When you have completed the rings try them in the lathe, and true them up if necessary. Each ring should stand exactly the same height. 

Now you must take in hand the straight pieces for the foot. The thick strips may be filed to shape, or bent round into a ring edgeAA'ise—not flatAvise as for the circles—soldered 
and turned to the proper section on a big chuck. Afterwards you must cut through the join in the ring and straighten the metal out. It will be a long, straight strip of the correct shape for the lowest member of the moulding. Build up the straight moulding as you did the rings, and take care that when finished it stands just the same height as they do. Cut the corners in a suitable mitre block, but see that the moulding stands level when you are cutting it. Fit the joints carefully, standing the piecesof moulding upon the tracing, on a surface plate or sheet of plate glass, to make sure that everything is level. Solder each corner separately, then stand it on the tracing again as before, and mark where it is to join the circles. Take the circles also, and cut out from each the part that is not required. Fit corners and circle together carefully. Finally solder each circle to its right or left hand corner, and the four pieces together. Rest the work, when soldering it, on a very level surface; but put broken pieces of piercing saAYS between the work and the slab, otherwise you might have some difficulty in getting it hot enough. The complete bottom moulding is now ready to be fixed to the foot of the chalice. Remember that if you boil the Avork out after each soldering and put rouge, loam or whiting on the joints which have been already soldered, there will be little likelihood of their coming apart at subsequent firings. 

When a strip of moulding has to be applied to a tapering shape like Fig. 298, you will have considerable difficulty in getting it to lie flat against the work all round, unless you bend the moulding to a suitable curve first. If, however, you draAV the elevation of that part of the work against which the moulding is to fit, and set out the curve as de scribed on page 249, then a moulding bent to that curve, as in Fig. 299, will, Avhen bent into a circle, fit closely against the form shoAvn in Fig. 298. 

A tool which will be found extremely useful is that known as the folding iron, Fig. 301. It is made from a strip of iron or steel measuring, say, 3 feet by 1| inch by | inch. This is folded in two, being forged thinner at the fold, so that its tAvo halves may be easily sprung apart sufficiently to allow a piece of sheet metal to be slipped between. Sup pose you have to turn up the edge of a rectangular tray, or to bend a piece of metal round to make the four sides of a box. Mark Avith pencil Ayhere the bend is to come. Then slip the sheet betAveen the tAvo halves of the folding iron and bring the pencil line level with the top of the iron. Grip the latter in the vice. If the ends of the iron gape apart, grip them also in the jaws of a hand-vice. You may now bend that part of the tray which projects above the folding iron right down on to its top surface, and tap the corner or edge doAvn smoothly Avith mallet or hammer. The two long sides of a tray may be bent thus. The tAvo shorter sides must be bent down over a flat, square-edged stake if you have no short folding irons which are available for the work. 

When a rectangular box is made from sheet metal the latter is sometimes scored deeply at the places where the folds are to come. For this, the tool shown in Fig. 300 will be found convenient. It consists of a handle, a shank, and a small steel cutter which passes through a hole in the shank and is kept in position by a set screw. 

The repousse ornament on a circular tray is often worked before the centre of the tray is sunk. The repousse work stretches the metal considerably, with the result that it is warped and buckled a good deal. It must be made true again before the other work can proceed. To remove a buckle in a piece of metal: lay it upon a flat bench and take a mallet, the head of which is in section like Fig. 198, that is to say, flat, with the corners rounded off. Now a buckle in a sheet of metal means that some part or parts are stretched more than the rest. It is very difficult, almost impossible, to contract the part that has been stretched, but it is possible to so expand the parts near it that the sheet of metal may lie flat again. The metal may have been stretched either at the edge or nearer the middle of the sheet. If the edge is stretched, some part of it will not lie flat hoAvever much 3^ou press it, for it will always rise in some other place. Notice where the sheet looks tight,—a part near the stretched place which does not move about, whichever part of the stretched edge you press down. You must AVork Avith a good deal of judgment, but you must give that tight place a few good blows, a dozen perhaps, to stretch it. As it stretches it will relieve the edge and allow it to go down. 

Remember that if an edge is stretched you must on no account hammer it any more, you would only stretch it still further. Hammer the part'that looks tight, and that will relieve the stretching. Noav, on the other hand, your piece 
of metal may have been stretched in the middle. Its edge is tight, and must be expanded. Where the sheet is stretched in the middle it will rock on the bossed out part, or, if you turn it upside down and press it hard, stand up in the middle though the edges are rightly pressed to the bench. In this ease hammer round the edge. Perhaps the most difficult buckle to deal with is that in which the metal is tAvisted like a screw—the right hand far corner and the left near corner going up, and the left far corner and right near corner going doAvn, or vice versa. A buckle of this kind means that the work is tight in the middle and must be stretched from the centre and in lines parallel to the diagonals. When nearly correct don't give a blow too many, but see the effect of each one. It may be necessary to anneal the work. 

To return to the round tray. When you have got it flat, see that the edge is truly circular. Then wire it, if it is to be wired. Mark round with the compasses the line within which the sunken part of the tray is to come. Use a hammer like Fig. 137; its face measures about l£ inch by | inch. You may sink the hollow in the tray by hold ing it on a flat stake and hammering the metal so as to stretch and sink it all round, just within the compass line. While hammering so you tilt the far edge of the tray upAvards and hold the compass line just over the front edge of the flat stake. Hammer all round quite evenly and go on until a sufficient depth has been attained. You finish this sinking by planishing the hammer-marks smooth, using a flat block of hard wood as a stake. The sunken part of the tray should turn downwards quite suddenly from the rim, so to hammer this part the tray has to stand almost vertically on the stake. If the weight of the tray is too great to manage easily with the left hand, have a pulley fixed above the bench. At one end of the cord put a weight, at the other tie a hand-vice. With this you may grip the far edge of the tray and so relieve the strain on your wrist. A small tray may be sunk in a hollow hammered in a large block of lead; the shape of the hollow being such that part of the finished tray could lie in it, if necessary. Planish the tray on the wood block as above. 

There are several ways in which it is possible to fix a tablet to a wall. If the work is light and you may screw through from the front of it, it is usual to let into the wall plugs into which the screws may go. To drill a hole in a stone wall, take a well tempered chisel, 9 or more inches long, and, after carefully marking the place, give the chisel a series of smart blows with a hammer or mallet. Rotate the chisel a little after each blow, and you will find that the chisel point gradually splinters a circular depression in the stone. Go on till the hollow is deep enough, and enlarge it a little at the bottom—dove-tail fashion. Then take an oak peg, thoroughly dried in an oven, and drive it into the hole. Saw its head off afterwards, flush with the wall. 

With a heavy memorial it is usual to provide metal rods projecting several inches from the back of the work. These rods are roughened all along and slightly expanded at the extremity. Holes are bored in the wall as described above ; the memorial tried in its place, and afterwards removed. The holes are then all filled with Portland cement. The memorial is again put into position, the rods pushing their way through the cement. The work is shored up till the cement is dry. It grips the rods very strongly, making the work quite secure. 

The metal tops to glass inkpots are fixed on with plaster of Paris. They may be removed by soaking the tops in a strong solution of lump sugar and water.