JC week 10 : cutting and silver soldering the pommel and handle connectors

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

Cutting and silver soldering the pommel and handle separators

The following covers the creation of the handle segment separators and the cutting and soldering of the pommel segments. 

Pommel Separators

TOP: original length of strips to be used for the seperators
Middle and Bottom: Strips after being run through the press roller

I had misscalculated the lengths of the brass strips needed for the handle segment seperators. The original length cut was 10cms, the required length was 11cms. The Handle segments had altered shape after soldering and reshapping. While not ideal, my solution was to run the seperator strips though the roller press (figure 1). This did lengthen the strips as desired, but also made the metal thinner. For this project this isnt detrimental, but not recommended practice.

figure 1

figure 2

The next step was to bend the brass strips into rings, and solder the joins. This was done using silver solder. The purpose of the separators is to 1. stop the segments of the sword handle from moving about 2. cover the tops and bottoms of each of the segments. 

To stop the separators from sliding around I soldered two strips of copper wire (2cm in length 1.5mm width) to either side of the separators (figure 2) . This proved adequate as a solution as can be seen below  (figure 3 )

figure 3

Pommel segments

The pommel (the end of the sword)  is intended to be made in two segments, the ring and the join which can be seen in the original marquette below.

 Joiner portion of the pommel :segment 1

ABOVE: the design of the joiner, seen with the paper shape to the top right, is transfered onto the brass plate. Then cut using a jewellers saw. Finally the piece when cut free is annealed and bent into a ring shape ready for soldering depicted BELOW .

This segment was then soldered, using silver solder and cleaned with citric acid

Note ALOT of filing will be needed for the circular disk to be incerted.

Circle for pommel :segment 2

ABOVE: A strip of brass , 15cm by 3.5cm was cut and annealed

ABOVE: this was then bent into a circle shape and the joining edges were soldered using silver solder

This is the result of the segment dividers, and the two pommel segments. After careful consideration, the hollow ring at the top will be revised for conceptual and aesthetic relevance as I feel that it is not suitable for this project.