Cold Forming Sheet Metal With A Hammer

A ball peen hammer.

Cold forming sheet metal with a hammer.

Something to cut the metal like sheet metal shears or tin snips. Follow along as i demonstrate how you can begin shaping metal with hand tools only. This is a handy metal fabrication technique you need to learn. How can you go about shaping metal with hand tools alone.

Hammer forming is one of the oldest simplest and least expensive ways to shape sheet metal. The tokyo based goldsmith yutaka nagai demonstrates how to hammer down a gold ingot to form a sheet. Something like a sharpie to mark on the sheet metal. And some sand paper to smooth out the edges.

You have to adjust your mind to the concept that when you hammer on sheet metal with a steel hammer onto a steel dolly or anvil that you will expand or increase the surface area by thinning the metal. You may want a smaller hammer for small shapes or a larger hammer for larger shapes.