Copper Cuff Ring Taking Shape

When last we've seen ole Coppering he was about to be decapitated. After very careful measuring, I came to the conclusion that: fuck measuring, this thing looks too long. So I cut it and re-filed.

I also drew a line down the middle. This is so I could see what I was doing when I put it into the vise.

Usually I fold the copper over with my fingers. However, this is a much smaller piece of copper than I usually use (hence the giant rings) making it harder to work with and also, I now have the strength of a baby kitten with leukemia that hasn't eaten for a week. I had to use a rubber mallet to fold at the center.

And then a different rubber mallet to smash the open end flat.

And then the slim ended hammer to pound in what I hoped to be a frilled edge.

Lemme take some time to explain things. First, these hammers have names besides the ones I have given them:--rubber mallet, different rubber mallet and slim ended hammer-- but I don't feel like looking them up. Anyway, I'll continue to call them as I see them so to hell with knowing the proper name for things, this is 'Murica! and we are proud of our ignorance.

Secondly, I had a feeling that I didn't hammer the edge enough. In the picture you can plainly see only one end is anywhere near hammered enough to go for the look I was going for. But I knew I was going to have a hell of a time prying the sumavabitch open due to the kitten with leukemia thing. And I was right.

I was just able to stick the pry-knifey into the fucker. The pry-knifey also has a real name and I am one hundred percent sure it doesn't include the word 'pry' because if it did it would be a lot more useful prying things open. It probably does contain the word 'knife' because it sure liked stabbing me.

There was a lot of prying to be done. Other tools had to be employed. Like both flat and bent nosed pliers. I did not make those names up as they are named appropriately according to me. Pictured below are the flat nosed. Because the nose is flat. The bent nose? They are bent.

Enough prying. Let's hammer this puppy.

In the above picture you can very faintly see the fluting I wanted. It would have taken a lot more pounding with the slim edged hammer to get exactly what I wanted. And then it would have taken me days to open.

The ring got flattened out a little more and then I had to stop. Metal gets hard when you work it (no diggity!) and my mini-torch stopped working, the flaming bastid. Not only do I need the torch to anneal the ring back to a workable softness, I also need it for coloring. I may borrow my son's mini-torch. While he's at work. What he doesn't know won't get me yelled at.