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2002-04-19 - 6:15 a.m.

Thursday was a happy day of completing action items.... Finished up a white paper to supplement a procurement 'Request for Offer' package for the FAA since one of the standards bodies is now around 6 months late in publishing one of the standards we need to reference.... Also finished debugging some code I wrote months ago that required another piece of software to be modified, which only recently occurred. Yeah! I don't need to maintain parallel code development strings. I also got the Unix laptops working properly. Apparently, I had a bad connector in the loop. Today, I really should document that up and work on some other documentation so I can get one of my contractor minions to do some other tasks for me. Even had lunch with the Kyna who will be working with me starting in May.... muwahaha


The armouring term for the day is:

Dishing

Dishing is when you hammer a piece over a recessed form (usually of some form of shallow or deep bowl shape) with a round faced hammer. This causes the metal to stretch and begin to fill the form. This is one manner in which you turn a flat piece of steel in to a cop or helmet.

The recessed form comes in a variety of types. Some folks just cut them into a large stump of wood. Other folks have metal forms, like a swage block or the discards of a giant punch they use to make portholes on ships. The punchouts usually require some clean-up, but work nicely and come in a variety of depths.

You usually want to start with a shallow depth and work your way to deeper forms. That way you don't thin out a particular spot too much or seriously harm the surface of the metal being worked. Also, shallow dishing can be done with a mallet, which saves some potential cleanup later.

Dishing also thins out the metal. If you increase the surface area of the metal, that material needs to come from somewhere. If worked cold, dishing will also work-harden the metal.

There is something cathartic about rough dishing. You just get to wail away at a piece of metal with a 2-4 pound hammer. Later, refined work will smooth out the dings, so you don't need to be too picky.

Next entry: Raising, the other form of shaping.

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