I have to say, the learning curve on this project is a killer, even with help! It's a roller coaster ride of emotion with week long build up with some crash letdowns. Little victories along the way. I think of the masters I'm collecting and access some of their work to hold and inspect. Lately, I have added some Goetz and even one Eberback that is so perfect in its casting and surfaces I had to inspect it closer to make sure it was really real! I love it when that happens. I take it being a medalist was their day job or maybe they just had better transfer of information from their teachers. Who knows, its inspiring and this whole process is helping me appreciate my collection more and more. The more I get up to bat and strike out the more I marvel at the craftsmanship. Maybe they suffered and worked through it just like I am. Of coarse they did. I'm just an infant of the smallest order in this process with my sights set on being a serious medalist myself someday. I've been through this with many things. In the beginning of tattooing, I walked with giants and it took years to built up my skill set to hang right in there with them. My first tattoo mentor would say while holding a tattoo magazine, "This is the target, these are the tools, figure out how to use them to do this, guys!" I just need more experience. Metal making is a deep field. Still, I surly have more to work with and better access to knowledge than they did 100 years ago so no excuses from me. I have to employ my brain and intellectualize every aspect of this as well as lean into the hours, but I'm starting to consider this casting part similar to a blue ribbon cookie recipe, lots of subtle changes in ingredients and bake time idiosyncrasies, etc.
I said I had completed a cast medal in the title. I did and I'll show it here today. I've only had it in my hand a few days. I took some pictures of it on my deck and came inside, sat down and started enthusiastically typing this all out while I'm still high on it. Does it need tweaking to be perfection? You bet it does. This casting could have better finer texture but there are no major holes or dissolved looking failure. I have only just begun looking for proper toning chemicals and that stage will hang me up some too. This is a puzzle I'm solving and I want to keep this in the fun zone. I don't have to do this, I want to continue to perfect the process as a matter of personal development and I'm dedicated to achieving the goals (hopefully not to lofty) I have set for myself. Contact with @cacheman always results in encouragement. I went an put the words Mastery, Heritage and Excellence on my medal and the piece can't be all janky looking with that on it.
Back from my absence, Doug has some new metal in hand. It looks richer brown instead of the yellowish brass we have been using. We also have a new casting plaster own hand and get after the set up again. We have a process now were I do the flask prep at home during the week and on cast day I get to his place in AM and for an hour or so then go to Tharsh's or Wild Idea all day and on my way home from work we cast the piece.
It was pretty cool to pull the piece out of the quench and see there was no huge failure. It's overall pretty ugly though and hard to believe all the detail is in there under all the crud. I'm not getting picky here, just progress is all I'm hoping for. I'm not to the point where I'm hating this piece, actually quite the opposite. I think the pull back break helped the process some. This whole process is such a metaphor to my life.
I'm pretty exhausted that night but drive home with a grin. I feel I've achieved some level of a turning point. I gained a new appreciation and knowledge as well as a new solid buddy in Doug. It's all been worth it to me so far.
I can't wait to get this finish work done and saw off the sprue the next day. I few minutes on my sander and I guess an hour downstairs with a small file. The piece has small edges you can't feel in wax that you can feel with your fingers when it's metal. Then I get it soaking in some sulphur. Doug gave me some crystals of potent sulphur and showed me how to use it in water and it only takes a min to darken the whole piece flat black.
I have a bullet case polisher but not the tile pyramids Doug has at his place. I can't wait to get down there so I improvise. I also rock hunt the Badlands and do lapidary work. At times I want to tumble an agate or something to knock off some rough spots without eating up the natural patination on the rest of the specimen. I found that ant hill sand from the area works great as its naturally what everything is tumbled in out there anyway. The anthills out there are probably 5 feet wide and they have classified this quarts sand evenly. I had some washed up and on hand so I placed it in my polisher. Only takes around 20 min to clean up the high spots and I help it along with a toothbrush. I'm muttering to myself positive swear words.
This is what I have to date. I think this counts as a completed piece. We feel we should stir the metal just before we pour as we feel it may have separated some in the furnace. I need more examples too if I'm to give one away at the next employee meeting. Cant wait. I feel this piece has room to keep getting better and I eventually want around 20 at a minimum.
This is the piece as far as I have it to date. I've been carrying it in my pocket all week getting it out often to gaze at. I have to put in down before it gets dinged up. I don't have anything else to post right now but will add updates as they come in. Thanks so much for letting me get this all out here and share my take on where I'm at in the hobby. I just wanted to say that I made my own coin.
I want a sterling piece as well, just for me as well as other entirely new medal ideas I want create. Next will be a piece celebrating the feeling you get riding a home made motorcycle through mountains listening to (the Dead) music on one side and on the other the desperation of a breakdown and repair. Maybe a piece dedicated to my VW Bus restoration hobby. My wife says I should make a piece for my kids to give them when they graduate. I'm totally doing that. Doug says I can just rent a permanent booth at his place which is good because VDub buses and bus parts bully your square footage.
What a read! You're thanking us for letting you get this out? You've got a few wildly great ideas for future medals as well. Someday you'll look back and it'll all be a dream you dreamed one afternoon long ago.
Just found time to catch up on this thread. Thanks for sharing! I am not an artistic person in any way and great to see the whole process you went through.
I’m happy to report that I was able to award my first medal to a Thrashs's crew member for her 10 year employment celebration.
For many years we have a pre-Sturgis Rally gathering or barbecue to get everyone pumped up for the big three weeks of work ahead of us. We never want to meet up after as we all want to go lick our wounds and disappear right after the rally is over, so if it happens at all we do it ahead of time. This year was also another crew member who passed the 10 mile mark a few months back and I wanted to acknowledge the milestone with a party, so we mixed the two reasons together. This will be the 5th person besides my wife and I to pass 10+ years and we're rather proud of that as a company that is 18 years old.
Of corse there is a lot of planning involved for the Rally and a quick party even though this marks my 22nd year in a row of tattooing Sturgis, and inevitably I left a few things to the last min. I literally stamped the 001 number on the award medal 30 min before we left for the park.....
I should back up a minute. I had been out of commission lately having driven my 77 VW Westfalia campmobile to the Dead&Co shows in Washington and then to Boulder, CO for the tour closer. Between the two events I was able to cast a successful double with Doug and get them home to complete the final finishes. This leaves me with a few AP (Artist Proofs) and my first two production pieces to be given away. The anticipation of the final hand off was killing me and I couldn't wait to share this creation and see the final impression and reaction from my friends. This has all been a secret from them all up until now, so lots of build up.
We met at a local park and weathered a lightning and rain storm and even though the air was muggy and gross we all hung in there. When everyone was assembled I had a brief greeting and went right into the acknowledgement of our co worker Pam. I went onto our story as briefly as I could until I started feeling like I was toasting at a wedding or something, haha and moved into the medal being my latest personal artistic endeavor besides tattooing and that it was going to be the new standard award for milestones and that Pam was going to get the 001 piece. I described what a medal was and how they depict something important and I don't think anything is more important than our craft and business that supports us all. That a medal only depicts imagery that belongs or supports the subject matter. We all agree the words on the reverse are perfect and close the oration with a brief review of how to pass medal and handle it by the edge and never wipe it with your thumb while holding.
It felt really great to have given this piece away to such an important person and just another piece that hardens our friendship and life together. I topped it off with a piece of my custom tie dye I sewed into a pouch that is even more a piece of me. Just seemed to make since to do that with what I have around.
We have a wonderful crew and the shops support many people. I wanted to put down in a medal just how important these people are to me. To put into metal something about what we have that is immortal. I have to think my buds get where I'm coming from an can see how deeply I feel towards them.
Next up, I have my first silver casting scheduled after the Rally. I have a few excellent waxes to final prep and have some Franklin Mint .925 to repurpose. I'll report how that goes once it happens. I think posting this here is fun. Thanks for reading and your comments.
Now that the Rally is buttoned up I was able to get over to Doug's studio and make a silver cast of the medal. I have been looking forward to my first .925 casting for a while and anxious to see how silver is to work with compared to the bronze we have been using up to this point. Weeks ago in preparation, I stopped in to my pals B&M coin shop to source some .925 silver and he said he had just the thing and offered me this Franklin Mint stuff at virtually his cost. I bought all he had of that stuff he had on hand which is about enough to do 2.5 pieces.
I prepped a wax model and flask the night before and Doug and I made the investment mold early the next morning. When I returned later in the day he had cut the coins in half with a sheer and we got them ready to melt. While we waited for them to melt I made a few more wax models. These are coming out almost perfect now that we know what pressures and temps the mold and wax like.
Everything went pretty much as expected and once the quench was complete, I was pretty stoked with what I held in my hand.
It seems silver is a really forgiving metal compared to the bronze and simply more predictable to work with. The piece was already dark and I asked if its possible to just tumble the finish this way, but he said its better to strip it with pickle and re-darken the piece, then tumble. I headed back to my house to deal with all that as time permitted.
A pickle strip of the old casting residue and the details really revealed themselves. Then a few minutes in a Liver of Sulphur solution to darken and off to Doug's for a proper tumble.
He said it took 3 hours of tumbling to get it to this point and I'm more than thrilled with the results.
I have to say the matte finish is what I'm going for and it has a great look on silver. Still, I want to be able to do this with bronze and will have to continue to find that breakthrough of the recipe to get that metal casting and finish dialed in. I wish it was economically feasible to just make these in silver but the piece is almost 10 Oz. I think maybe I'll consider that in the next design maybe 2-3 Oz would be a size to shoot for, but we both agree the heft of this piece adds to the statement. I also want to emulate the German masters and what they were able to accomplish with steel and bronze so there is always that to consider and stay focused on.
My “mintage” for this piece will be 25 Bronze and 3 silver. I'm finalizing the design of my next piece and visualizing what it will look like and convey and will begin the wax carving of that in the coming weeks while I continue with the casting production of the Thrash's medal. I think of I decide to start a new thread on the piece I will post the steps as they happen in real time.
Comments
Thanks! I'm glad your along for the ride!
I have to say, the learning curve on this project is a killer, even with help! It's a roller coaster ride of emotion with week long build up with some crash letdowns. Little victories along the way. I think of the masters I'm collecting and access some of their work to hold and inspect. Lately, I have added some Goetz and even one Eberback that is so perfect in its casting and surfaces I had to inspect it closer to make sure it was really real! I love it when that happens. I take it being a medalist was their day job or maybe they just had better transfer of information from their teachers. Who knows, its inspiring and this whole process is helping me appreciate my collection more and more. The more I get up to bat and strike out the more I marvel at the craftsmanship. Maybe they suffered and worked through it just like I am. Of coarse they did. I'm just an infant of the smallest order in this process with my sights set on being a serious medalist myself someday. I've been through this with many things. In the beginning of tattooing, I walked with giants and it took years to built up my skill set to hang right in there with them. My first tattoo mentor would say while holding a tattoo magazine, "This is the target, these are the tools, figure out how to use them to do this, guys!" I just need more experience. Metal making is a deep field. Still, I surly have more to work with and better access to knowledge than they did 100 years ago so no excuses from me. I have to employ my brain and intellectualize every aspect of this as well as lean into the hours, but I'm starting to consider this casting part similar to a blue ribbon cookie recipe, lots of subtle changes in ingredients and bake time idiosyncrasies, etc.
I said I had completed a cast medal in the title. I did and I'll show it here today. I've only had it in my hand a few days. I took some pictures of it on my deck and came inside, sat down and started enthusiastically typing this all out while I'm still high on it. Does it need tweaking to be perfection? You bet it does. This casting could have better finer texture but there are no major holes or dissolved looking failure. I have only just begun looking for proper toning chemicals and that stage will hang me up some too. This is a puzzle I'm solving and I want to keep this in the fun zone. I don't have to do this, I want to continue to perfect the process as a matter of personal development and I'm dedicated to achieving the goals (hopefully not to lofty) I have set for myself. Contact with @cacheman always results in encouragement. I went an put the words Mastery, Heritage and Excellence on my medal and the piece can't be all janky looking with that on it.
Back from my absence, Doug has some new metal in hand. It looks richer brown instead of the yellowish brass we have been using. We also have a new casting plaster own hand and get after the set up again. We have a process now were I do the flask prep at home during the week and on cast day I get to his place in AM and for an hour or so then go to Tharsh's or Wild Idea all day and on my way home from work we cast the piece.
It was pretty cool to pull the piece out of the quench and see there was no huge failure. It's overall pretty ugly though and hard to believe all the detail is in there under all the crud. I'm not getting picky here, just progress is all I'm hoping for. I'm not to the point where I'm hating this piece, actually quite the opposite. I think the pull back break helped the process some. This whole process is such a metaphor to my life.
I'm pretty exhausted that night but drive home with a grin. I feel I've achieved some level of a turning point. I gained a new appreciation and knowledge as well as a new solid buddy in Doug. It's all been worth it to me so far.
I can't wait to get this finish work done and saw off the sprue the next day. I few minutes on my sander and I guess an hour downstairs with a small file. The piece has small edges you can't feel in wax that you can feel with your fingers when it's metal. Then I get it soaking in some sulphur. Doug gave me some crystals of potent sulphur and showed me how to use it in water and it only takes a min to darken the whole piece flat black.
I have a bullet case polisher but not the tile pyramids Doug has at his place. I can't wait to get down there so I improvise. I also rock hunt the Badlands and do lapidary work. At times I want to tumble an agate or something to knock off some rough spots without eating up the natural patination on the rest of the specimen. I found that ant hill sand from the area works great as its naturally what everything is tumbled in out there anyway. The anthills out there are probably 5 feet wide and they have classified this quarts sand evenly. I had some washed up and on hand so I placed it in my polisher. Only takes around 20 min to clean up the high spots and I help it along with a toothbrush. I'm muttering to myself positive swear words.
This is what I have to date. I think this counts as a completed piece. We feel we should stir the metal just before we pour as we feel it may have separated some in the furnace. I need more examples too if I'm to give one away at the next employee meeting. Cant wait. I feel this piece has room to keep getting better and I eventually want around 20 at a minimum.
This is the piece as far as I have it to date. I've been carrying it in my pocket all week getting it out often to gaze at. I have to put in down before it gets dinged up. I don't have anything else to post right now but will add updates as they come in. Thanks so much for letting me get this all out here and share my take on where I'm at in the hobby. I just wanted to say that I made my own coin.
I want a sterling piece as well, just for me as well as other entirely new medal ideas I want create. Next will be a piece celebrating the feeling you get riding a home made motorcycle through mountains listening to (the Dead) music on one side and on the other the desperation of a breakdown and repair. Maybe a piece dedicated to my VW Bus restoration hobby. My wife says I should make a piece for my kids to give them when they graduate. I'm totally doing that. Doug says I can just rent a permanent booth at his place which is good because VDub buses and bus parts bully your square footage.
What a read! You're thanking us for letting you get this out? You've got a few wildly great ideas for future medals as well. Someday you'll look back and it'll all be a dream you dreamed one afternoon long ago.
Just found time to catch up on this thread. Thanks for sharing! I am not an artistic person in any way and great to see the whole process you went through.
My current "Box of 20"
Enjoyable reading, thanks for sharing your work.
I’m happy to report that I was able to award my first medal to a Thrashs's crew member for her 10 year employment celebration.
For many years we have a pre-Sturgis Rally gathering or barbecue to get everyone pumped up for the big three weeks of work ahead of us. We never want to meet up after as we all want to go lick our wounds and disappear right after the rally is over, so if it happens at all we do it ahead of time. This year was also another crew member who passed the 10 mile mark a few months back and I wanted to acknowledge the milestone with a party, so we mixed the two reasons together. This will be the 5th person besides my wife and I to pass 10+ years and we're rather proud of that as a company that is 18 years old.
Of corse there is a lot of planning involved for the Rally and a quick party even though this marks my 22nd year in a row of tattooing Sturgis, and inevitably I left a few things to the last min. I literally stamped the 001 number on the award medal 30 min before we left for the park.....
I should back up a minute. I had been out of commission lately having driven my 77 VW Westfalia campmobile to the Dead&Co shows in Washington and then to Boulder, CO for the tour closer. Between the two events I was able to cast a successful double with Doug and get them home to complete the final finishes. This leaves me with a few AP (Artist Proofs) and my first two production pieces to be given away. The anticipation of the final hand off was killing me and I couldn't wait to share this creation and see the final impression and reaction from my friends. This has all been a secret from them all up until now, so lots of build up.
We met at a local park and weathered a lightning and rain storm and even though the air was muggy and gross we all hung in there. When everyone was assembled I had a brief greeting and went right into the acknowledgement of our co worker Pam. I went onto our story as briefly as I could until I started feeling like I was toasting at a wedding or something, haha and moved into the medal being my latest personal artistic endeavor besides tattooing and that it was going to be the new standard award for milestones and that Pam was going to get the 001 piece. I described what a medal was and how they depict something important and I don't think anything is more important than our craft and business that supports us all. That a medal only depicts imagery that belongs or supports the subject matter. We all agree the words on the reverse are perfect and close the oration with a brief review of how to pass medal and handle it by the edge and never wipe it with your thumb while holding.
It felt really great to have given this piece away to such an important person and just another piece that hardens our friendship and life together. I topped it off with a piece of my custom tie dye I sewed into a pouch that is even more a piece of me. Just seemed to make since to do that with what I have around.
We have a wonderful crew and the shops support many people. I wanted to put down in a medal just how important these people are to me. To put into metal something about what we have that is immortal. I have to think my buds get where I'm coming from an can see how deeply I feel towards them.
Next up, I have my first silver casting scheduled after the Rally. I have a few excellent waxes to final prep and have some Franklin Mint .925 to repurpose. I'll report how that goes once it happens. I think posting this here is fun. Thanks for reading and your comments.
Love the posts, the artistry, and the passion.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Thanks! I appreciate that!
Now that the Rally is buttoned up I was able to get over to Doug's studio and make a silver cast of the medal. I have been looking forward to my first .925 casting for a while and anxious to see how silver is to work with compared to the bronze we have been using up to this point. Weeks ago in preparation, I stopped in to my pals B&M coin shop to source some .925 silver and he said he had just the thing and offered me this Franklin Mint stuff at virtually his cost. I bought all he had of that stuff he had on hand which is about enough to do 2.5 pieces.
I prepped a wax model and flask the night before and Doug and I made the investment mold early the next morning. When I returned later in the day he had cut the coins in half with a sheer and we got them ready to melt. While we waited for them to melt I made a few more wax models. These are coming out almost perfect now that we know what pressures and temps the mold and wax like.
Everything went pretty much as expected and once the quench was complete, I was pretty stoked with what I held in my hand.
It seems silver is a really forgiving metal compared to the bronze and simply more predictable to work with. The piece was already dark and I asked if its possible to just tumble the finish this way, but he said its better to strip it with pickle and re-darken the piece, then tumble. I headed back to my house to deal with all that as time permitted.
A pickle strip of the old casting residue and the details really revealed themselves. Then a few minutes in a Liver of Sulphur solution to darken and off to Doug's for a proper tumble.
He said it took 3 hours of tumbling to get it to this point and I'm more than thrilled with the results.
I have to say the matte finish is what I'm going for and it has a great look on silver. Still, I want to be able to do this with bronze and will have to continue to find that breakthrough of the recipe to get that metal casting and finish dialed in. I wish it was economically feasible to just make these in silver but the piece is almost 10 Oz. I think maybe I'll consider that in the next design maybe 2-3 Oz would be a size to shoot for, but we both agree the heft of this piece adds to the statement. I also want to emulate the German masters and what they were able to accomplish with steel and bronze so there is always that to consider and stay focused on.
My “mintage” for this piece will be 25 Bronze and 3 silver. I'm finalizing the design of my next piece and visualizing what it will look like and convey and will begin the wax carving of that in the coming weeks while I continue with the casting production of the Thrash's medal. I think of I decide to start a new thread on the piece I will post the steps as they happen in real time.
Interesting for sure.....love the Lindstrom pliers...
bob lindstrom
@WildIdea you are certainly talented as well as artistic. It's so original and thank you for sharing the process with us.
PF
Quite the endeavor, thanks for sharing all of the details.
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