Last year, I was commissioned to make a ring for my wife. (The commission was from my wife). I've never worked with brass before and especially never done any of this "fret" kind of work. I procrastinated as usual, and now with one month to go before Diwali (it will be a whole year during diwali) I frantically went about trying to complete it.
Here is what I used
1. Drew the design in inkscape and then printed it.
2. Bought a bit of brass (brass like all the metals is sold by the kg. brass is about 320/kg)
3. Bought the right thickness of brass (oops)
4. Bought a jeweler's saw with 2 types of blades
Process
1. Glue the pattern to the brass
2. Attach the blades and begin cutting
3. Keep cutting
4. Finally done
5. Sandpaper the brass. soften the edges. Sanding was done at 80, 220 and the final was at 400.
6. Move on to polish compound and a dremel polishing bit.
7. Cut a thin strip and bend it.
Brass is a lot softer than iron. But just like iron it will break if you force it when it is hard. But when soft it will bend quite willingly.
Iron softens if it is heated and then cooled slowly, the more slowly, the more flexible.
Brass on the other hand softens when cooled quickly, called quenching. I heated it up on the gas stove in the kitchen, dull red and then quench in tap water.
Bent easily
I tried a question mark shape, but that was not working.
So finally I simple made a U shape and had a tiny bit braised to the brass U.
8. 1/4 inch Burma teak was cut out with a hole saw and varnished. See the difference between varnished and unvarnished.
9. Finally Araldite
A good one week night build, most of the time.
Here is what I used
1. Drew the design in inkscape and then printed it.
2. Bought a bit of brass (brass like all the metals is sold by the kg. brass is about 320/kg)
3. Bought the right thickness of brass (oops)
4. Bought a jeweler's saw with 2 types of blades
Process
1. Glue the pattern to the brass
2. Attach the blades and begin cutting
3. Keep cutting
4. Finally done
5. Sandpaper the brass. soften the edges. Sanding was done at 80, 220 and the final was at 400.
6. Move on to polish compound and a dremel polishing bit.
7. Cut a thin strip and bend it.
Brass is a lot softer than iron. But just like iron it will break if you force it when it is hard. But when soft it will bend quite willingly.
Iron softens if it is heated and then cooled slowly, the more slowly, the more flexible.
Brass on the other hand softens when cooled quickly, called quenching. I heated it up on the gas stove in the kitchen, dull red and then quench in tap water.
Bent easily
I tried a question mark shape, but that was not working.
So finally I simple made a U shape and had a tiny bit braised to the brass U.
8. 1/4 inch Burma teak was cut out with a hole saw and varnished. See the difference between varnished and unvarnished.
9. Finally Araldite
A good one week night build, most of the time.
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