Wednesday, June 25, 2008

But I digress...

Yes, digress, transgress, regress... That's our sad story here.

Let's delay the journey into three-dimensionality for now and talk a bit more about die-struck silver, the next technological innovation after die-rolling and the process by which most grand patterns of the 1880's were produced. Just what is a die? How is it made? Do you stick one into a huge drop press, put a blank in place, pull a lever and BANG out comes a finished piece of Durgin NEW ART?




















Hardly.




A flatware die is an intaglio cut image on a piece of heavy, hardened steel which is key fitted into a massive drop press. This requires some serious manufacturing capability. The Gorham factory in Providence, for example, was an iron reinforced structure with Rock Maple floors over an inch thick.

Gorham photo


With designer's model in hand, the die sinker used hardened steel tools to pick out the pattern, alternating between sinking the design and checking his progress by pressing gum into the work, in order to produce a positive image. When completed, the die itself was flame-hardened. At least eight dies were required to make a given piece, the first simply to produce an outline, then each one carved successively in greater detail. Ornate designs such as Durgin's Iris















could require 12 dies per side (the best patterns are decorated front and back,





or "double struck") to manufacture a single spoon. Here is the final die for a Gorham electroplated fork, circa 1910.





It measures 9 3/4 by 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 inches, and weighs approximately 25 pounds. So the next time you admire a piece of flatware from your collection, consider the art of the die sinker, cutting that elaborate design, by hand, into solid steel.



1 comment:

Steve Willis said...

Isn't the die method used to make US coins?