[Harp-L] Burnishing v Embossing

[Joseph Leone]

I looked up all three terms in 3 dictionaries. NONE of the terms matched. Not exactly. The one (embossing) comes closest as it refers to RAISING a ridge. Ok, so if you look upon the INSIDE of the reed slot and set it on the VERTICAL. yes, you ARE actually raising a ridge. Except that it is on the INSIDE of the reed slot..and it is aimed INWARD and not up and down..which is how I think most people are visualizing it. 

smo-joe (Btw, swaging CAN be done gently..it doesn’t have to occur via a drop hammer.. lolol. You are basically moving molecules of metal via pressure). But I’ll buy whatever you guys are selling. 

> On Jan 20, 2017, at 9:28 PM, Dennis Fischette <dmfischette at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> I would call it squeezing the crap out of it !!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Jan 20, 2017, at 7:31 PM, John Goodwin <australia.goodwin at xxxxx> wrote:
>> 
>> Swaging isn't the correct term. Swaging infers stamping or punching along
>> with dies and less subtle hammers and presses. It is generally an extreme
>> form of material manipulation.
>> Burnishing is correct. You burnish the edge of a wood scaper to raise a
>> cutting edge. The extruded cutting edge is merely the useful result of the
>> burnishing the same as what's done when you burnish the edge of a reed
>> slot. Burnishing is much much more finessed than swaging.
>> Though like so much of our bastardised English language, I can't see the
>> term embossing being changed anytime soon.
>> I did my time as a toolmaker working on press tools, dies and punches.
>> 
>>> On 20 January 2017 at 22:31, Aongus Mac Cana <amaccana at xxxxx> wrote:
>>> 
>>> At the risk of being pedantic, I suggest that neither Burnishing nor
>>> Embossing is the correct term for spreading reed plates to reduce the gap
>>> to
>>> the reeds.
>>> 
>>> When I went to engineering school this engineering operation was called
>>> Swaging and was employed by Blacksmiths, Boilermakers and
>>> Sheetmetalworkers.
>>> Car body repairmen might have had occasion to use the technique as well
>>> from
>>> time to time, but I never anticipated that there would be occasion to apply
>>> it to the delicate field of harmonica maintenance. Maybe I should have
>>> spent
>>> a few weeks in a Jewelery workshop after two years in the cruder
>>> environment
>>> of a railway maintenance works.
>>> 
>>> As far as tools for this operation on a reed plate are concerned I have
>>> heard recommendations for coins, the ball end of a tuning fork, and small
>>> automobile socket spanners. I have not got around to trying any of them
>>> yet.
>>> 
>>> At the Willie Clancy Summer Music School the specialty tools of Richard
>>> Sleigh have been suggested as the weapons of choice for those who wish to
>>> seriously attack their harmonicas with extreme prejudice.
>>> 
>>> Beannachtai
>>> 
>>> Aongus Mac Cana
>>> 
>>>