Flatten Smooth Sheet Metal Hammering

First anneal the sheet then grip the sheet between two sheets of 1 8 thick flat stock steel sheet gripped tightly using steel g clamps then anneal the steel sheets until they are dull red and let it cool without quenching.

Flatten smooth sheet metal hammering.

Proceed across creating an even row of marks. Every autobody practitioner has some favorite backing surface for hammering metal. Tape the four corners down with painter s tape or masking tape. Planish means to flatten smooth or polish metal by rolling or hammering.

Hammer each blow with equal effort for uniform marks or textures. You won t really need an anvil. The tokyo based goldsmith yutaka nagai demonstrates how to hammer down a gold ingot to form a sheet. Shaped plastic mallets used with shot bag backing is a particularly effective hand forming combination.

As you hammer metal on a shot bag it dishes out. Wet metal causes tool rust and oxides on the metal will become embedded into the sheet during hammer texturing. If you hammer softly most of the time and harder once in awhile those harder blows will stand out. Keep the hammer bobbing in a straight up and down motion and just turn the metal piece.

This provides relatively smooth forming and controlled stretching in the same operation. The process of planishing uses many light blows to smooth metal which has already been formed by some other means. Just a very smooth block of half inch stock or even a flat hammer face will do. Hold the hammer lightly in your palm and let it bounce off the metal in a fluid motion.

Place the sheet on a clean flat smooth steel block. Hammer across the sheet in one direction. It s more like foil. Mark both a vertical and a horizontal line through the centers of the sheet.

A polished flatter and a polished anvil block might do it for you. Then when you undo the clamps you will have a nice flat sheet of precious metal.