David Huang

Here's a follow up post to my BB submission above.  As I noted in my BB the sinking of a bowl was just the first stage in what I intended for the piece.  I've now finished doing all the decorative chasing work, added a wire rim, patina, and interior gold leaf.

I was invited yesterday to write a haiku as part of a visiting artist workshop.  I've never done this before, but in thinking about it this morning I realized the process also has me seeking out and contemplating a subject that I'm grateful for.  Here's my attempt:

Wide smile bright eyes
fuzzy butt wiggling fast
I am welcomed home

It was tax day for me.  I'm certainly grateful to now have my state and federal income taxes done and ready to mail out in the morning!  While crunching the numbers for my business use of my vehicle I noted that I drove less than 4000 miles last year.  To me this is a win since I live in a rural setting where I need to travel to get pretty much anywhere.   I put plenty of miles on the bike though, which makes me grateful to have a nice e-bike!

Today I'm feeling grateful to live in a time and place where I have such vast access to information, knowledge, and resources.  The opportunities to select a subject, research it, and then be able to acquire with reasonable ease the materials and tools required to put such study to use are vast.  I should probably be taking more advantage of this than I do.  I am grateful to have the opportunities.

Hey Chris,  I heartily commend you for jumping in and trying a BB others haven't done, which you don't have experience with either!  Challenging one's self and learning new skills is a big part of what SKIP is all about!  I did find it funny that you were taking this one on at the very time I was as well, both thinking we'd be the first to do it.    

I did get my submission posted a little while ago.  You can find it here:  https://permies.com/wiki/145273/pep-metalworking/Sink-small-bowl-spoon-metalworking#2851424

I probably spent an hour and a half sinking my bowl, but then I also know what I'm doing and have all the tools and supplies set up and at hand.  My issue with the point values is just my sense of what is involved with your ring compared to some of the other metalworking BBs that are good for only 1 point.  However, that isn't your fault.  What you did does seem to fit the sinking BB as it is written.  I'd just suggest someone might want to consider editing the BB.  If it were me I'd actually make them two BBs, one for the sinking a bowl and one for making a functional spoon or ladle.  While I see that the techniques generally involved are related I also see them as involving quite different issues.  But that's just me.

Here is a link to my prior submission for raising a bowl.  https://permies.com/wiki/145929/pep-metalworking/Raising-Small-Bowl-metalworking-wood#1161906

To quick highlight some of the differences between sinking and raising, with sinking you generally are hammering on what will be the inside of the bowl, stretching the metal down and thinning it out in the process.  With raising you are hammering on what will be the outside of the bowl, bending and raising the sides up, actually compressing the metal to some degree, making it a bit thicker.  Though with raising it is quite common to also be thinning it a bit at points to end up with the result of the metal staying basically the same thickness as you started with.  I actually did document my raised piece even more extensively than I posted here on Permies.  If interested you can see and read it all here on my website.  https://davidhuang.org/david-huangs-studio/start-to-finish-making-luminous-relic-1752/

Again, cheers to you jumping in and trying out some metalwork!  Keep at it!

I've been meaning to do this BB for some time now since what I do for a living is craft metal bowls/vessels.  However, the technique I am almost always using is raising rather than sinking.  (Of course I have already done the raising BB!)  Sinking is different in several ways one of which is that the process stretches the metal out, making it thinner.  

On this particular project I'm working on this is what I needed to start out. There's a quirk of metal suppliers here in the US, where I am, such that I can easily get sheets of silver that are 6 inches wide.  However, if I want anything wider I need to jump up to 12 inches in width for which I pay a premium per ounce price.  If I want wider than 12 inches I'm out of luck and will need to manufacture the sheet myself.

Anyway, for this piece I essentially want an 8 inch disk of 18 gauge fine silver.  The most cost effective way for me to do this is to purchase a 6 x 6 inch sheet of silver that is thicker and has the same basic weight of metal in it as that 8 inch disk would have.  I calculated this to be 12 gauge.  So that is my starting material, a 6 x 6 inch square of 12 gauge fine silver sheet.  From here I scribed out my disk and cut the corners off, filing the edges to remove any sharp burs.  

My sheet came in a softened state so I didn't need to anneal initially though I did between each subsequent course of sinking.  I took it to my sinking stump and did the initial round of sinking utilizing a specialty metalsmithing hammer designed just for this sort of work.  I actually don't much like using that hammer as the head is just too long.  The length is very handy to have when the bowl starts developing depth, but it is very hard on the wrists to control.  I actually ended up using my normal raising hammer for most of the work, switching to the deep sinking hammer when I got to the deepest middle sections of the bowl.

My goal with the sinking work was not to actually end up with a finished piece.  Instead I was just looking to get the vessel form started and thin the 12 gauge sheet down to something more around 18 gauge.  With sinking the starting circumference doesn't change much, unlike raising which will compress the metal and reduce the circumference.  So to tell when I was where I wanted to be I was checking the measurements of overall height/depth plus the width, wanting them to equal around 8 inch total.  In the end I went for a bit more, ending up around 6.25" x 2.5", because it wasn't visually looking like what I'm used to seeing when working with 8 inch diameter pieces to start with.  At this point I have finished the later raising courses for this piece getting to measurements of about 4 inches high by 4 inches wide, just what I was aiming for.  Now I'm going to spend the real time chasing in detailed designs.  I may post a photo of the finished piece later once it's done.

For this BB though here are my documentation images for the sinking work.  Personally I feel like it should only be approved for 2 points of the potential 6, if it's even deemed worthy of approval.  It is a very basic job of sinking a bowl with hardly any refinement, and not even that much depth compared to what is possible with this technique.

It's funny because I'm just now getting ready to post my submission for the sink a bowl/spoon BB.  I'm likely the metalsmith on staff Mike is referring to.    My assessment is that your thimble ring is similar to what could be done to make a very basic spoon though less refined than a spoon would need to be in order to eat with it.  The sticking point I would have if it was completely left up to me revolves around the stated variable point range this BB gives of 2 to 6 points.  Personally I would be inclined to approve it for 1/2 to 1 point if I compare it to what's involved in other metalworking BBs.  However as it is written the minimum points would be 2.  For comparison the submission I'm about to make for this BB I feel should only be worth 2 points as I will be just doing the very basics of sinking a bowl, demonstrating that I can do the technique.  However, I'm making no effort at all to create a finished piece since for me it is really just one stage in the process of what mine will become.

So to sum up my thoughts here, I would approve it as the BB is written, but I would recommend the BB itself be altered to allow for lower point values.

For years I've kinda had in the back of my head a thought that I should learn at least the basics of knitting at some point.  Finally for this BB I've opted to do that.  So this is the very first thing I've ever knitted.  It started out a bit rough, missing a stitch or two, then growing in size some, but as things progressed I got the hang of the basic knit stitch.  I can still see there is lots more I should learn about knitting if I ever want to make something as "complicated" as a sock!

Anyway, here is my dishcloth submission for consideration for this BB.

To document completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pics or video (< 2min):
-  Show and describe your yarn and crochet hook or knitting needles.
-  Show your dishcloth in progress.
-  Show your completed dishcloth in a way that documents its finished size.

For yarn I went to my bag of cotton yarns I got a while back in anticipation of doing this BB as well as darning some socks and sweaters.  I ended up selecting the cream colored one.  I got a set of #7 knitting needles for this project as well.  Although I got faster as I went along this still took longer than I originally anticipated.  It makes me all the more grateful for the hand knit socks, mittens, and scarves I've received through the years, not to mention giving greater value to my sweaters (though I'm guessing all mine were machine knit).

Clay McGowen wrote:

Richi Boyamian wrote:I didn't see it mentioned but to double check, I inherited a large amount of -copper- cookware, no visible damage or anything - any dangers here?

edit: To clarify, I believe some of them are fully copper, and some must be copper coated, as the full copper ones will not work with magnets, whereas some of them are magnetic - leading me to believe it might be iron or steel underneath. I've read that there can be an issue with acid leeching, wondering if I can still make good use of them for other purposes?

This gets into a bit of a fuzzy space where a lot of folks have their own beliefs...

...seems to suggest that bare copper is non-ideal.

I've been on my own health journey and was diagnosed as copper toxic (having too much copper in my cells) and was told this is a fairly common affliction these days.
As a result, I avoid using copper in the kitchen, despite it's gorgeous appearance.

I'm sure there are many ways to continue using them, though!
I bet our resident copper artist, David Huang might have some ideas - https://davidhuang.org/

Copper cookware is certainly a fuzzy space.  I understand there is some sort of confectionary thing that requires a bare copper bowl to be made properly.  

Copper is anti-microbial/anti-bacterial, as is silver.  (This is one of the reasons silverware used be made or plated with silver.)

My general understanding as far as copper cookware is concerned is that clean, bare copper is safe to cook and eat from.  However, the oxides that can develop on copper are not.  Copper oxidizes very quickly and easily.  In fact what most people think of as a copper color is actually oxidized copper.  To see what clean bare copper looks like go ahead and scratch up the surface of a piece of copper to see the color of the bright metal.  (Pro tip, if you try using a US penny for this make sure it is from 1981 or older.  Newer pennies are only plated in copper.)

Anyway, because copper oxidizes so quickly and that oxidation might well be bad to ingest the standard practice with copper pots and pans was to tin them on the interior where the food will be making contact.  Tinning them is basically just what it sounds like, melting a layer of tin over the surface.  Such cookware may need to be periodically re-tinned as that layer gets worn or scratched away.

Copper is loved for cookware because of how well it conducts heat.  This is why you often see copper bottomed pots and pans.  That laminate layer of copper helps to conduct the heat more evenly across the bottom, assuming the copper layer is thick enough and not just a thin plating for looks.

It feels like this should already be a BB, likely in the foraging badge, but I don't see it, so I'm submitting this for consideration here as an Oddball.

Wild edible foods are great!  They take care of themselves, are generally very nutrient dense, and naturally find their place in polycultures.  You just have to go and harvest them at the right time...

... actually there can be a bit more involved.  Nutrient dense foods are commonly found in the wild.  However, calorie dense ones are more rare.  Lots of critters want these calorie dense foods too so they often have stronger layers of protection.  Nuts are a fine example of this.  Some nuts are worse than others.  There is already a BB for gathering hickory nuts.  However, my personal experience indicates this is the easiest part by far of actually having an edible food from them.  The real work is in shelling them to separate out the delicious, nutritious, and calorie dense nut meats.  Hickory nuts are like black walnuts in that the nut meat is interlocked in the shell, rarely coming out cleanly and easily.  The shell is also quite hard, dense, and resistant to cracking.

I've been gathering and shelling hickory nuts for a while now, but only just recently thought to submit the process as an oddball BB.  Previously I had done an oddball metalworking BB about the little contraption I made to initially crack the hard shells without making a huge mess, along with making a couple nutpicks specifically sized for hickory nuts.  

For this BB I'm doing the actual nut processing, starting with the uncracked nuts.  So I got out my tool and a hammer to do the initial shell cracking.  These all then go into a bowl for the real work of processing, that of pulling them open and getting  out the nut meats, hopefully without any shell fragments.  I really hate eating nuts and suddenly biting down on a shell bit so I take great care when doing this to separate them out.  I've found a massively useful tool for this is a good pair of wire cutters.  These let me get into tight spots on the shell to snip and crack away sections, opening up better access to the nut meat.  I probably use them more than I do the nut picks to be honest.

The batch of shagbark hickory nuts you see in the photos below took me roughly 3 hours to process, resulting in just over 1 cup of nutmeat.  If there is a faster way to do it I have yet to read about it.  That is if you really want the nutmeats.  I realize one could also just mash them all into a paste, shells and all, then mix with water, simmer, and let it settle to get a nut milk which extracts some of the calories and nutrients with much less time involved.  However, I like eating the actual nuts.  They are very tasty, just very labor intensive to get.  I don't believe anyone has developed a commercial way to process shagbark hickory nuts either.  The interlocking shells means it pretty much needs to be done by hand.  So if anyone ever offers to share their shelled hickory nuts with you, realize they are offering you a true gift of goodness and labor!