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PART I
CHAPTER 1
SCROLLS
Scrolls are used more often than any other motif in wrought ironwork. Their variety and grace enhances the interest of the finest designs; a mastery of scroll-work is, therefore, the first essential.
The beauty of a scroll depends upon its proportions. As a smith gains experience, he will train his eye to judge how heavy a section of metal to choose, the fineness of the taper and how tightly to roll the scroll. And he will train his hand to strike the hammer blows where they tell. There are no rules by which to determine the proportions of a scroll and even when working to drawings, a smith must use his own critical sense to ensure that each scroll has a graceful flow.
Practice in freehand drawing is a valuable training. A beginner should take a course in drawing if he can. If there is no school near enough to attend, then he should practise drawing a simple scroll true to line when he has a few moments to spare. At first he may find it surprisingly difficult, but if he perseveres he will find the training most useful when he comes to make the scroll in metal.
This chapter describes seven different types of scroll, beginning with a ribbon-end scroll, which is the simplest, and progressing to the more elaborate blow-over leaf scroll. The scrolls have been explained before the scroll tool, because the making of the tool is best left until the smith has some experience of its use. The chapter ends with scrolls worked into a ‘C’ and an ‘S’, and the fixing of scrolls with collars. The side panels and centre panels for a gate described in Part II are typical examples of decorative scroll-work.
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Lesson 1RIBBON-END SCROLL
Fig. 16
The ribbon end is drawn down in two stages.
First, on the face of the anvil, reduce the width of the bar. Do not allow the thickness to increase, but do not reduce it either.
A
Next, move on to the bick, turn the metal on to the flat and draw the taper down.
The reduced width now spreads to the original size or a little over.
With the bar on edge, round up the tip neatly.
Level up on edge to the width of the parent metal. If the first stage was well judged, little will have to be done now.
Roll the tip of the scroll over the edge of the anvil. Start at the extreme end and take care not to chop the metal against the corner of the anvil.
Now continue to roll up the scroll, at a RED heat, on the anvil face. As the scroll is formed, both the bar and the direction in which the blows are struck should steadily approach the vertical.
You will probably have to repeat these movements two or three times.
Scrolls can be completed by this means. But they are more often finished on a scroll tool as shown next.
The making of a scroll tool is described on page 32. It is better to begin on one made by an experienced man and see how it work...
