Annealing
This is the process by which a hardened piece of metal is made malleable, the metal will become hard by the process of hammering, spinning and stamping etc. By heating it until it becomes a dull red then quenching it, it will become workable.Lost Wax Casting
This involves making a rubber mould of the pattern and is also done in two halves, wax is injected into the rubber mould to produce a wax model of the original pattern. The wax is then placed in a suitable container, then heat resistant plaster known as an investment is poured in around the wax pattern, which has the right number of gets (this is an old term for “gates” or inlets). When the plaster is dry it is heated enabling the wax to run through these channels, this is where the name of the process comes from, for cire perdu means Lost Wax. The metal is then poured and when cool the investment is removed.

Chasing and Repousse Work
The term flat chasing looks very similar to engraving, for it involves producing a linear design upon the article. However the metal is not cut away instead the tool gently pushes the metal into the pattern, which in some cases can be seen from the inside of the article being worked on, this confirms that a punch has been used. The chaser will use hammers and punches to produce his article’s, but will not use gravers or cutting tools. Repousse chasing is always three dimensional, the work is started from the back of the piece with simple domes and general outlines, it is then finished from the front, The item is laid on a bed of pitch which holds it firmly in place, thus allowing the metal to be pushed through.

Beautiful hand chased crumb scoop and brush set

Engraving / Bright Cut
This name is given to a form of decoration where unlike the art of flat chasing, the metal is actually cut away with a tool called a graver, the turning of the tool within a cut provides the light and shade effect known as Bright Cut.

Bright cut decoration on a crumb scoop

Gilding
Before Electro gilding fire gilding was the only method of depositing gold on an article, an amalgam of mercury and gold would be pasted on the item, which was then heated over a bed of charcoal to drive off the mercury, this was an extremely dangerous job as it gave off highly toxic gasses, the advantage of fire gilding was that it produced a much thicker deposit of gold, workers in this trade did not have a long life span.

The interior of this table snuff box has been guilded giving it a beautiful golden colour

Piercing
This is the art of cutting away areas of an object for a useful (as in sifters, casters etc) or for pure decoration. The early form of piercing was achieved with chisels and punches, since around 1765 it has been done with a piercing saw or in the case of mass production, dies and fly presses.

As you can clearly see the back of this beautiful inkstand shows some amazing piercing work

Polishing
The finishing processes that are used for silver are as complex as those used for shaping it, once the silver has been cleaned by the silversmith using files and buff sticks, it is sanded (this is the first polishing procedure). To polish, the silversmith needs very fine sand usually an alluvion from the River Trent, (or as an alternative pumice powder added with whale oil or a similar organic oil) can be used using a hard or soft felt bob or wheel on a high speed spinning polishing shaft, normally belt driven, the silver item is then polished on the wheel using the Trent sand as an abrasive between the item and the felt bob, this will remove any unwanted file, hammer marks or spinning lines, after this a number of different bobs and polishing compounds will be used decreasing in hardness until the final polishing is undertaken by hand.

The lid of this outstanding Irish soup tureen has been polished to perfection