Forming and shaping on top of the stump

You can pound or grind dents into the top of the stump and shape your parts from these.When you pound a little dent into the top of the stump, you can take the many rounded hammers and form the metal, or dome it is another term.Many different forms of metal can dent the stump. you can pound a metal dowel or bolt shank and that leaves a rounded groove. You can take a chisel with the end dulled a little and create a fold in the metal. Many uses for this method. It also does not scratch the metal either.

Forming hammers

Here are some of the forming hammers.Some are adapted and ground and polished from other uses and some are purshased jewelry hammers.You can probally see the difference.

The polished steel plate and the rubber pad

Here are a couple more additions to your stump. The polished steel plate is to stamp and flaten your sheet without damaging it. The rubber pad has many uses including just sound deadneing. You place it under the steel plate to lesson the sound made when pounding on it.Rubber pads can be used for forming also. This pad came from a broken conveyer belt. Another found object.

Silver making anvil stump

Here is the way a silver making stump should look like.

Another view

Here is another view of my first little anvil. take a good look as the next time you see it I will clean it up some more and grind it into a more functional jewelry making anvil.I have had this anvil since 1974. It has served we well but time to adapt to a higher level.

Another view

Here is another view of my first little anvil. take a good look as the next time you see it I will clean it up some more and grind it into a more functional jewelry making anvil.I have had this anvil since 1974. It has served we well but time to adapt to a higher level.

My first anvil

My little first anvil
I started making jewelry from very humble and simple beginnings. My tools were very limited to what I already owned and I did not have much to work with. My first teaching book was Ben Hunts silver smithing book. Ben teaches the Indian way of silversmithing. The older generation Indians were very resourceful,and still are, and made tools from found objects. They made stamps from valve stems, cement nails and bolts. or railroad spikes. Any metal thing that had a metal hardness was used. Their anvils were pieces of railroad iron. They worked off an old stump and pounded forming dents into the stump and mounted there railroad anvil to it.
I went to the Albuquerque flea market every weekend. It was a very big flea market located on the New Mexico state fairground. One weekend I cam across a little anvil made from a piece of small railroad iron. It was probably from a mine as it was a lot smaller than train track. But it had been very abused and had even been welded on. The top had the welding marks on it and needed ground off and smoothed up. But it had been trimmed at each end to look like an anvil. The top was flat at one end and the other was tapered to a point. It was a perfect size for jewelry, I was excited to get it. I think I paid under ten dollars.
I took it home and cleaned it up and ground the welds off and smoothed the top. It was made from hardened steel and would ring a little. I wondered the history of this little anvil ,had it been a rail track in a gold mine?. I wondered how old it was and the history of it. I fell in love with old tools and retooling them for making jewelry. Much more meaning in a tool when it has been used for something else and has a old history. It is much more rewarding to find old tools and adapt them. Old tools were also well made with good metal and have a different feel. They speak to you from the past.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders

My first anvil

My little first anvil
I started making jewelry from very humble and simple beginnings. My tools were very limited to what I already owned and I did not have much to work with. My first teaching book was Ben Hunts silver smithing book. Ben teaches the Indian way of silversmithing. The older generation Indians were very resourceful,and still are, and made tools from found objects. They made stamps from valve stems, cement nails and bolts. or railroad spikes. Any metal thing that had a metal hardness was used. Their anvils were pieces of railroad iron. They worked off an old stump and pounded forming dents into the stump and mounted there railroad anvil to it.
I went to the Albuquerque flea market every weekend. It was a very big flea market located on the New Mexico state fairground. One weekend I cam across a little anvil made from a piece of small railroad iron. It was probably from a mine as it was a lot smaller than train track. But it had been very abused and had even been welded on. The top had the welding marks on it and needed ground off and smoothed up. But it had been trimmed at each end to look like an anvil. The top was flat at one end and the other was tapered to a point. It was a perfect size for jewelry, I was excited to get it. I think I paid under ten dollars.
I took it home and cleaned it up and ground the welds off and smoothed the top. It was made from hardened steel and would ring a little. I wondered the history of this little anvil ,had it been a rail track in a gold mine?. I wondered how old it was and the history of it. I fell in love with old tools and retooling them for making jewelry. Much more meaning in a tool when it has been used for something else and has a old history. It is much more rewarding to find old tools and adapt them. Old tools were also well made with good metal and have a different feel. They speak to you from the past.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders