Building a Special Body

[Ian Williams]

Thanks for the positive comments. I have just found the pictures I took of beating the guards to shape, so for those who are interested and thinking of giving it a go here is the process I used. We want to stretch the metal in the centre and shrink it around the edges, so first using a Lignum Vita teardrop mallet or similar beat a couple of rows reasonably evenly down the centre. This will stretch the metal in the middle and leave a whole load of puckers along the edges, next we beat the puckers back in on themselves to shrink the metal around the edges, I do this with a wooden mallet over a gentle radius stake dolly. Repeat until you have created more or less the right shape, we now need to planish out all the beating marks, this can also be done over the stake with a slapper, but in my case I have a wheel so used it to speed up the planishing process. Of course you could do the whole thing simply on a wheel, but to put in this much shape like that takes absolutely ages and life is too short! 


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