_Material:_ Heavy copper, No. 8 gauge, 10 inches long by 1-1/4 inches
wide.
_Tools:_ Drill press and drills, jewellers' saw frame, cold chisel,
files, vise, emery cloth, few wire nails (1/2 in.) two blocks of hard
wood, one, 10 × 1-1/4 × 1-1/4 ins., and the other, 6 × 2 × 1/2 ins.
[Illustration]
Cut out the design and paste it on the copper plate. If our shears
could cut copper as heavy as this we would have little trouble to cut
our design out. But the shears can't do this work, so we have to put
the copper into the vise and cut the design out with a cold chisel and
hammer. Place the copper into the vise with the line of design to be
cut flush with the top of the vise. With hammer and chisel, cut along
this line. The back part of the vise will act as a shear and help in
the cutting and will prevent the copper breaking away and leaving the
edge rough. When this is done, place the paper knife in the vise and
file all the edges smooth. Now that it's cut out and smoothed up we
are ready to saw out the design in the handle. To do this drill holes
in the design as a starting point for the sawing. Take the drill press
and put a 1/16-in. drill into the chuck. Drill a hole in any part of
the design. Take the jewellers' saw frame and fasten one end of the
small saw into one of the legs of the frame; push the loose end through
the hole made by the drill. Fasten the loose end to the other leg of
the saw frame so the saw is fairly tight. In order to saw properly,
we must have something to support the piece while we are working on
it. This is best done by taking a block of wood 6 × 2 × 1/2 ins. and
cutting out a V-shaped notch in one end. Place this in the vise, or
nail one end of it to a bench so that the V-shaped end will extend over
the bench or vise to be free to work upon. Put the handle to be sawed
out on this block so that it will be supported on both sides of the
parts to be sawed out (see sketch of work in vise). The saw will play
freely up and down in the notch. All sawed work is done in the same way.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Block for sawing metal]
_To file the edges sharp:_ Take your hard wood block, 10 × 1-1/4 ×
1-1/2 ins.; fasten the cutter down tight by driving two short wire
nails half their length into the wood at each end of the cutter. Place
the cutter between these nails, bend the ends over, and fasten down
(see sketch). Place all into the vise jaw and tighten it up. With a
rough flat file, file the edges down, working from the centre line both
ways. When one side is filed about half the thickness of the copper,
bend the nails, take off the cutter. Reverse it, put it back, and file
as before. Do this until the edges become sharp.
[Illustration: File the edges sharp]
To finish this piece of work as it should be done, we must do some draw
filing. The draw filing is done in this way: Take hold of both ends
of the flat file, the handle in one hand and the end of the file in
the other. Stand lengthwise of the piece. Place the file flat down on
the blade with the teeth of the file pointing in the same direction as
the blade. Push it from you and pull it toward you, at the same time
pressing down on the blade. This is draw filing and it is the only way
to make a piece of metal true, and free from the marks of the cross
filing which was done in the beginning. Repeat this on the other side
until the whole paper cutter including the handle is smooth. Wrap
a piece of emery cloth around a block and rub all over the surface.
Polish and finish as before described.