—After you have drawn the design on the sheet of metal either with a pencil or by means of transfer paper you can begin to trace the design by punching it with the straight and curved edge chisels.
To hold a chisel right, grip it between your thumb and index finger, let your next, or medius, finger lie gently on the shank of the tool and your third, or annularis, finger rest on the sheet of metal as shown at [C in Fig. 35].
The handle of the hammer is long, thin and springy and you hold it by the end with your index finger laying on it as shown at [A in Fig. 35]. Do not strike the tool hard or the punch may go clear through the metal sheet but instead give it a succession of light, gentle taps at the rate of about 100 a minute or so and you will make the tracing nice and even.
Bossing the Work.
—After you have traced the outline of the design with the chisels hold the plate over an alcohol or a Bunsen flame and when it is hot enough you can take it off of the cement.
Then cement it to the block again, but this time put the other side down. Now use your boxwood or steel punches and hammer the copper, or other metal, into bold relief or you can matt the ground with any one of the numerous punches shown at [B].
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| THE RING FOR THE CANDLE | |||
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| THE CANDLESTICK WHEN DONE | |||
| THE DESIGN ON THE METAL | |||
Fig. 36. a repoussé candlestick
How to Make a Flat Candlestick.
—This is a good piece of work for you to start with because it is at once simple, artistic and more or less useful. To make it, cut out a sheet of brass 6¹⁄₂ inches square and draw a spider and his web and a poor little fly or two making a bee-line for it as shown at [A in Fig. 36].