The Energon Pub

Well some of you may recall seeing my post asking for metalsmithing ideas.

Well thanks to some of your suggestions I actually came up with a good project that I will start working on today.

I will be making a face-mask like Scorpion/Sub-zero's or Shredder's from the 1st tmnt movie. I will be making it out of bronze with some sterling silver edging, and hopefully when all is said and done, I'll have a nice awesome face-mask.

Over the course of everything I'll most likely be documenting the process complete with photos.

Edit: I already have a prototype of the mask I'll be creating without any detail to it already made using Bristol board. So as soon as I get some batteries for my camera, I'll be taking photos of the prototype and the first day of work, which will most likely be cutting the metal and starting to shape it.

Can't wait to see!

So, as I said, I would get some pictures up of the progress.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the metal I'm working with at the moment, however I did get some photos of the prototypes, and sketches I've made.

Sketches & Sketches without the Flash

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Prototype 3


Prototype 3 is the final one I'm working with. I have the designs traced out in the metal, and have started cutting them out of the metal.

The sides of the facemask are made with bristol board so they haven't been curved like what they will be in the metal itself.

The sides of the mask will be made using 18 or 20 gauge bronze, while the faceplate will be made using either 18 or 20 gauge brass.

I made the prototype a little larger than what it needs to be so I have room to place in padding on the sides so the bronze doesn't react with my skin and turn it green due to oxidization.

So if it needs to be a bit larger than what it is already I can put the pieces through a press to thin out the metal give it a bit more length at the cost of it being a bit thinner.

Just to note, you can add a clear coat to brass and bronze as well to avoid oxidation. It's what I use on my lightsabers when I have detail pieces.

Awesome, I'll make sure to keep that in mind when I'm finished putting it together

I've finished cutting out the pieces for the facemask itself, and have started to shape the metal.

I gotta say, shaping bronze sucks. Sure it's easy after you anneal it, but a few whacks of the mallet later and it's tough as...well...metal.

I'll have photos up this afternoon.

Yeah bronze is a very tough metal to work with. Very brittle surprisingly. It's a pain in the ass to machine as well. It chips off in a mist of tiny tiny pieces instead of coming off like a string as Aluminum tends to do.

Man, I don't look forward to learning how to machine bronze. I can just see my bill go up the first couple of tries.

As promised, here are the photos.

Having just finished cutting the metal out, before I annealed and started to shape the suckers. I'm saving the center piece, the brass face-plate for last, so I know what I'll have to do in order to shape it to make it easier to weld to the side flaps.



I didn't take any photos of me shaping the metal itself, being that I only have two arms at the moment. But after the first day of shaping the two side pieces, I have to say it's coming along nicely. I still have some roughing out of the metal to do, so things look smooth. But so far, so good.

Ok, so I've made some large leaps and bounds.

The frontal piece the facemask piece itself has been shaped.

I ended up welding it all together last Friday, this friday I'll be reshaping it a bit to make for a better fit. And beginning the schematics for a nose guard and the chin area to make it a more useful mask.

I'll have pictures of the piece come Friday. Needless to say, if that sounds badass, wait till you see it.