Metalsmithing for Lampworkers — an Online Tutorial

Lesson Four — Planishing and Riveting

To begin, read the section on Hammers and Planishing (page 20) from the book Jewelry, Fundamentals of Metalsmithing by Tim McCreight. In this lesson we will texture some sheet brass and rivet pieces of it to untextured brass for contrast.

Project II — Textures Earrings

1. Rough cut a 2" square section of brass sheet. Place it on the steel block of your bench pin and, using the small end your planishing hammer, hammer a texture into the sheet. The metal will curl and distort but do your best to keep the metal as flat as possible. Use the rawhide mallet to flatten it if necessary, texture one side of the metal only.

2. On a sheet of paper, draw two circles 15 mm in diameter. Rubber cement the shapes to the back of the textured metal. Place on the bench pin and cut, file and sand the shapes until you have two identical circles.

3. Cut two 20 mm squares from the untextured sheet brass. Finish as above.

4. Using 20 gauge sterling wire, make a dozen head pins about 1" long. Pickle and lightly sand.

5. Review the section on Rivets (page 43-48). Truth be told, I can't improve on McCreight's instructions on riveting. Therefore, in the interest of brevity I will not repeat his instructions. I will however, discuss planishing.

The word to planish comes from the Latin planus which means to flatten or level. It refers to the smoothing, toughening and polishing of metal by hammering. The effect of planishing can be only as good as the surfaces being used. While you can use any hammer to planish, it is preferable to use a special hammer called a planishing hammer which has a finely polished face and should only be used on softer metals such as copper, brass, silver or gold. Never use your planishing hammer to strike steel tools (such as punches) or you will mar the face of the hammer. Use a common clawed hammer or ball peen hammer to strike other steel tools. Reserve your planishing hammer for working directly on the surface of a piece. Any imperfections on the face of the planishing hammer will transfer to the surface of the softer metals being worked.

6. The next step is to rivet the hammered brass circle to the square of polished brass using the silver head pins as rivets. You will use your rivet hammer to create the rivet heads and finish them by sanding and filing. Rivet the two pieces together in three or four places.

I will however emphasize one point: be sure your drill bit is exactly the diameter of your wire or slightly smaller. Test the hole diameter on a piece of scrap metal before proceeding. The wire should just barely fit. If the hole is too snug (a good thing), run a saw blade through the hole and lightly saw around the edges to slightly enlarge the hole.

7. Once you have riveted both earrings, drill a hole in each piece and attach them to an earwire

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— Jane Clark