Rope edge brass

[Ciro]

Hello dear members,

I was wondering if you guys could give me your advice haw i could make such a roped edge.

I already tried to make it out of sheet brass file and bent it,but it did not work.

Would really apreciate your help.

 

Merry Christmas!

[ChrisW]

Fairly certain its twisted strands and then forge welded on.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Yes, twist thin brass/bronze, & then use silver solder to attach.

[Andi B.]

I suspect these on the images are one big strand only and then carved to a rope appearence (???). Hard to make...

[Brian]

I think Ford's forum would be the ideal place to answer that: http://www.followingtheironbrush.org/index.php

[uwe]

“Nawame-fukurin”!
 

Yes, Ford or one of “our” armor restorers are the right ones to address.

[IanB]

Ciro,  No, it isn't twisted strands and it is not soldered on, it is a fukurin - a U section piece of metal fitted over the edge of the plate. They are usually mercury gilded copper which is a bit tricky to get done in our society, You can get it electroplated in gold but somehow the colour doesn't look right. If you can get it plated the right colour use copper, but brass will make a reasonable substitute. How to make it - cut a strip from the edge of a sheet of brass that is a bit longer than you need. Soften it by getting it red hot and plunging it into cold water, but be careful as it is all too easy to melt the brass. You now need to make a punch like a chisel, but rounded at the edge rather than being sharp. Because the brass is soft, the chisel doesn't need to be hard - iron will do. Use this to hammer a groove along the centre line of the brass strip, supporting it on a block of lead or the end-grain of a piece of wood to form the strip into a U section that fits reasonably closely over the edge of the mabezashi. It might need re-softening again at this stage. Now bend it around the mabezashi. As it bends around the curves, the strip will tend to open up so go gently, tapping it beck to the U section where it does and re-softening if needed. The secret is gentle tapping doing a bit at a time until it fits. Real fukurin are pinned at each end and there will be tiny holes in the mabezashi where the pins go through. It was also usual to leave rounded protrusions from the edge of the fukurin at these points to take the pin / rivet. You now have a rim that fits the mabezashi, but whose cross-section is a U with the edges the same thickness as the rest. You can now file the edges down to give a more rounded section. Using a sharpy, mark diagonal lines along the whole length and using a triangular needle file, cut along the marks to make grooves. Don't file too deep and cut through. Finally use a file to round the surface between the grooves, then polish it all up. You can now fit it to the mabezashi, tapping it to close it so it grips the plate with a soft faced hammer.

 

A fair amount of work but not too difficult if you take things slowly and gently, softening the brass if it gets springy through work hardening. If at first it doesn't work, chuck it away and have another go.  

Ian

[Ciro]

Dear Mr.Bottomley

 

I am really thankful for every step you explained here.

This really means a lot to me.

As soon i will start this little project i will post some pictures of the progress.

 

Thak you thousand times Mr.Bottomley

[IanB]

My pleasure.

Ian

[ChrisW]

Interesting process to do that! I would have not thought of it.