The peculiar feature of improvement in this manufacture consists in producing the spoon, ladle, or fork perfect at one blow in the stamping-machine, and requiring no further manipulation of shaping, but simply trimming off the barb or fin, and polishing the surface, to render the article perfect and finished.
Heretofore, in employing a stamping-machine, or fly-press, for manufacturing spoons, ladles, and forks, it has been the practice to give the impressions to the handles, and to the bowls or prongs, by distinct operations of different dies, and after having so partially produced the pattern upon the article, the handles had to be bent and formed by the operations of filing and hammering.
By his improved form of dies, which, having curved surfaces and bevelled edges, allow of no parts of the faces of the die and counter-die to come into contact, he is enabled to produce considerable elevations of pattern and form, and to bring up the article perfect at one blow, with only a slight barb or fin upon its edge.
In the accompanying drawings, [fig. 1042.] is the lower or bed die for producing a spoon, seen edgewise; [fig. 1043.] is the face of the upper or counter-die, corresponding; [fig. 1044.] is a section, taken through the middle of the pair of dies, showing the space in which the metal is pressed to form the spoon.
To manufacture spoons, ladles, or forks according to his improved process, he first forges out the ingot into flat pieces, of the shape and dimensions of the die of the intended article; and if a spoon or ladle is to be made, gives a slight degree of concavity to the bowl part; but, if necessary, bends the back, in order that it may lie more steadily, and bend more accurately, upon the lower die; if a fork, he cuts or otherwise removes portions of the metal at those parts which will intervene between the prongs; and, having thus produced the rude embryo of the intended article, scrapes its entire surface clean and free from oxidation-scale or fire-strain, when it is ready to be introduced into the stamping-machine.
He now fixes the lower die in the bed of the stamping-machine, shown at a, a, in the elevations [figs. 1045.] and [1046.], and fixes, in the hammer b, the upper or counter-die c, accurately adjusting them both, so that they may correspond exactly when brought together. He then places the rudely-formed article above described upon the lower die, and having drawn up the hammer to a sufficient elevation by a windlass and rope, or other ordinary means, lets go the trigger, and allows the hammer with the counter-die to fall upon the under die, on which the article is placed; when, by the blow thus given to the metal, the true and perfect figure and pattern of the spoon, ladle, or fork is produced, and which, as before said, will only require the removal of the slight edging of barb or fin, with polishing, to finish it.