Need Recipe For Repousse Pitch

[Pointer]

Hello... I Need Recipe For Homemade Repousse Pitch

[brennivs - tony drake]

If you are doing scabbard plates you can use soft leather as below

For pitch itself I dont think anything is added it is just pure tree pitch ( Road pitch is a bit brittle ). They may be modern type pitch that is used but I have not worked with it, But I am no expert :errr:
Regards Brennivs

[PhilusEstilius]

What I have found most usefull is Plasticine that is much more malleable than pitch and gives better control with hot or cold water to get what is needed for support. Here is repousse made by hammering on 0.9mm brass however one first has to make the umbo then carry out the repousse into the umbo.

[PhilusEstilius]

Patrick.
It is as brennivs has said soft leather can be used but also for beltplates I not only use leather I have a flat hard surface for re - scribing of the picture on the front of the metal, then when a certain depth of relief is made this is where I bring in the plasticine and one can work both front and rear of a picture.
This idea of plasticine is a material that is much easier and cleaner than pitch and as mentioned it can be molded with hot water and made more hard with cold water.
Here is other work that has been carried out with this method of working after the picture was chased out on a metal surface.

[Medicus matt]

I used to use Brewers pitch with a bit of beeswax melted into it, poured into a steel dog bowl that was half filled with plaster of Paris. Did the job, although these days I use the red stuff from these chaps:-
http://www.piehtoolco.com/contents/en-us/d1216.html

[Pointer]

Brennivs---
What thickness of Brass are you using for the Scabbard Plates? And is the piece in this picture the front side or the back side of the Plate?

[Pointer]

PhilusEstilius--- Any ideas for setting up a frame or substructure for reproussing a breastplate?

[Pointer]

Brian S---- THank you again! On this piece you posted... 100_0460Medium.jpg Was the base metal Brass then silvered? I would like more information on it to glean from.

Thanks... Patrick

[Pointer]

Has anyone ever used a sand and wax mixture? Or a sand bag?

I am may be attempting to reprousse and hand make a cuirass. I feel I can use my artistic flair from being a master wood carver to transfer over to metal work and repousse.

And direction, links pictures, videos or any other helpful information would be gladly accepted.

[PhilusEstilius]

Patrick.
When I made this one for the late Doug' Arnold many years back in my earlier days of re-production all the work was simply done on a sandbag, then the decoration was all applied with what one might call invisible rivets where on the scroll work one uses countersink holes and when the rivets are peened and cleaned up no rivets seen.

[richard robinson]

Matt Amts Legio xx page has excellent working tips. Thanks for the plasticene idea and the link for German pitch. I use leather and felt for working repousee and wooden mallets annd plastic or rubber ones as they come to hand along with woodwork tools.
chisels should be well blunt and be semi circular in shape so corners don't appear where you dont want them, along with wooden formers or wooden punches(ie bits of scrap that appear when you are looking to flatten a section without making a mark
. If you cut out a shape from timber with a specific shape the cut out bit will help establish/ make a stamped positive to the negative shape you cut
(does that read OK?)
regards
Richard

[Pointer]

YES Richard! THank you!
I am a Master Wood Carver and believe that my skills will transfer well. Well... I hope so... I am accumulating repousse tools now...

[PhilusEstilius]

If you are wanting to make relief beltplates in repousse it is so much easier to do handworked repousse from thin metal sheet that can be wrapped onto other thin metal.
Here are some that I did by this method many years ago and of course the method by which I do most beltplates, these were done in 7thou' silver sheet and wrapped onto thin brass.

[Pointer]

WOW! Absolutely beautiful!

[Pointer]

Brian... Using the plasticine, do you use sulfur based or non-sulfur based? I used to be a model maker and plastics specialist in the automotive industry and I am familiar with both.

When it comes to annealing, are you able to heat the metal over the plasticine? Or to you have to remove it and reset it?

Anther thought. One of my projects will be 18 gauge brass. Is it possible to carve a wooden form or model... and hammer over it?

WIll leather stamping tools work for brass?