VanOstrand Metal Studio - Roycroft Copper

Restoration Job

Here is an interesting restoration that I have been workin on. It is an original "Alibaba" Vase made by the Roycrofters. The job included banging out a dent, and re-soldering the top section that had separated. The top section coming un-attached was a mixed blessing as it actually allowed the repair of the dent. the last part of the repair is to repatinate the vase which had been (gulp) cleaned.

It still is not finished as the patina did not take well in several spots. The curse of a perfectionist it goes back into the fumes (the green patina is processed in ammonia vapors - not for the the inexperienced patinator).

RVO

New Tools

I recently acquired some new tools that are turn of the century vintage. These are some really great tools, there are some fine matting textures, liners, planishers, even a few raised wires. They needed a little cleaning up and I have only gotten through half of them so far (there were almost 300 tools). Here is a pic of the half that are still being cleaned up.

I wash the tools in WD40, then steel wool. A coating of paste wax will help them resist rusting in the future. Here are the tips of the half that I have cleaned up.

The larger round end ones are embossing tools. What is really neat about these old tools is that the ends that are struck with the chasing hammer have nicely rounded over into a "mushroom". I usually treat the tools that I make with a hardened end as well as tip. This eats up the hammer a little and are prone to cracking (so I am told I have not had one crack yet). I don't mind the hammer being eaten up as I really prefer the cheap Pakistani hammer heads over the hardened German ones. (The German ones look really cool though). Here are the mushroom ends.

New Website

I appreciate the feedback so far on the new site that I am developing for the studio (linked from my current website www.ronvano.com). I currently plan to list items in .pdf formats so that the pages can easily be downloaded and printed out. I would really like feedback on whether this is a desirable feature as an option or a standard format.

Thanks,
Ron