[Harp-L] Burnishing v Embossing

[Eric Nielsen]

Techniques learned from working with one metal can certainly crossover to
other metals. I worked a couple years in a shipyard as a fitter/welder so I
am familiar with working steel. I later studied jewelry design in college
and later worked at a jewelry factory. I still think burnishing is the more
apt term to use for reed slot shaping.

Burnishing in jewelry-making refers to using a hard smooth tool (mostly
steel) to shape and polish softer metal such as silver, gold, copper,
pewter, etc. You could even use a burnisher made from stone. Working copper
alloys is similar to working silver alloys.  Here are a few links to
jewelers using a burnisher:

http://jewelrymonk.com/2016/03/14/how-to-use-a-burnishing-tool-to-polish/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuHKP-D_xC4


Eric





On Fri, Jan 20, 2017 at 10:38 PM, Joseph Leone <3n037 at xxxxx> wrote:

> 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
> >>>
> >>>
>
>