Cold Forming Sheet Metal With A Hammer

And some sand paper to smooth out the edges.

Cold forming sheet metal with a hammer. How can you go about shaping metal with hand tools alone. You also have to grasp the fact that you can reduce the area of sheet metal by thickening it. A ball peen hammer. Hammer forming is one of the oldest simplest and least expensive ways to shape sheet metal.

This is a handy metal fabrication technique you need to learn. The tokyo based goldsmith yutaka nagai demonstrates how to hammer down a gold ingot to form a sheet. You may want a smaller hammer for small shapes or a larger hammer for larger shapes. Something to cut the metal like sheet metal shears or tin snips.

Follow along as i demonstrate how you can begin shaping metal with hand tools only. You have to adjust your mind to the concept that when you hammer on sheet metal with a steel hammer onto a steel dolly or anvil that you will expand or increase the surface area by thinning the metal.