Shaping Silver - Episode 4 - Silversmithing - the craft of silver jewellery

An exploration of the four primary ways to shape silver. From manual raising to the precision of the stamping press. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:44 The Four Roads to a Shape 02:50 The Art of Wrought Work 04:47 The Process of Dooming 06:37 The Die and the Swage 09:05 The Stamping Press 11:06 The Economy of the Tool 12:43 Fashion and the Machine 14:14 The Logic of Hardness Sources George E. Gee, The Silversmith's Handbook — fifth edition 1921, first published 1877 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47816... John Hungerford Pollen, Gold and Silver Smiths' Work, 1879 https://archive.org/details/S0001886 An accurate quotation proves what an author wrote, not that it is correct. Where the older handbooks are outdated or were stating something narrower than it sounds, that is said in the narration rather than passed on. Further references Victoria and Albert Museum — Metalworking techniques https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/metalw... Royal Society of Chemistry — Silver (properties, melting point) https://periodic-table.rsc.org/elemen... Cambridge DoITPoMS — Work hardening (dislocations) https://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/sli... Corti, Basic Metallurgy of the Precious Metals (2007) https://www.santafesymposium.org/s/20... Canadian Conservation Institute — Understanding silver tarnish https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation... Cambridge DoITPoMS — Plastic deformation of metals https://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/mec... Corti, Improving the Properties of Precious Metals by Heat Treatment (2017) https://jtf.it/wp-content/uploads/202... RSC Education — Copper(II) oxide and sulfuric acid https://edu.rsc.org/experiments/react... Note This episode explains; it does not instruct. It is not a guide to melting, pickling, soldering, assaying or refining, and it is not safety advice. The methods described are based on the historical practices recorded by George Edward Gee. Every factual statement in this episode was checked against sources before recording, and the audit is kept with the episode. Should anything here be inaccurate, I would be grateful for a comment — here or at the contact address in this channel's legal notice. Corrections are made, and shown. The narration is AI-generated, simply because I want to keep my own voice out of the production for now; a notice to that effect is shown for the full running time. The illustrations are not: public-domain engravings and page reproductions from Gee (1921) and Pollen (1879), and schematic drawings made for this series, each credited on screen. Feedback is very welcome. If you notice something that could be better, I would be glad to hear it, and I will try to improve with each episode. #Silversmithing #SterlingSilver #Silverwork #SilverJewelry #Metalworking #TraditionalCrafts #JewelryMaking #CraftHistory #MaterialScience #Metallurgy #HistoricalCrafts #Alchemannia #silver