A bit OT - working copper - need ideas/ suggestions

[adric]

OK i have ordered the copper sheet to cover the upper bar area of the kitchen. wife wants a distressed finish. hammered beat up weathered etc. sounds easy enough. my Q to ya'll - glue it down to the ply wood surface first or beat it up loose then glue it down.

any roofers out there? any body had any exp with this stuff?

few info bits that ya may need - 3x10' starting sheet, 16oz new copper. planning to used gorilla type glue to adhere it. planning to sandwhich the copper between 2 surfaces to get a good bond thats uniform. looking to roll edge of CU in a bull nose after the surface has set up. i am familiar with electrolsis so we wont have any cross over w/nails etc. underlayment is 3/4 ply wood with built up edge to get to 1.5" edge profile.

oh and a bit more on typic for this place - the outer edge toward teh room is a compound curve - S-ish shape with a bull nosed edge. role the inside of the S and work out- role teh out side and work in? wont matter? any help here too please. trying to avoid kinks and tears.

[Egfroth]

Beat it up first. And don't cut the sheet to shape till you've beaten it, either. The process of beating deforms the shape, and you want to have that all completed before you think of putting it in place. And you'll also have to flatten the sheet out again - the beating is likely to make it curve into all kinds of interesting three-dimensional shapes before you're through.

This of course depends on how comprehensively you mean to beat it. Just a tad, or fairly deeply?

How thick is the sheet? I don't know what 16oz means (I work in metric) Makes a difference.

And don't forget to anneal it every few minutes if you're hitting it for any length of time - the stuff gets work-hardened and becomes brittle. Annealing (putting it over a flame) softens it up again so it won't crack or split at the most inopportune time.

A bullnose and a compound curve as well? You're a sucker for punishment, aren't you? Once you've done the distressing, you'll have to form that edge first, I'd say. Are you going to use some kind of roller to make the bullnosed edge, or use a hammer? Because a roller won't easily cope with anything but a straight line.

I'd advise you practice on a bit you don't care about - you need to develop some skills in working with this stuff. And don't be surprised if you waste a fair bit of it before you get any good at it.

OTOH, you can do wonders with copper - it's possibly the most malleable and ductile of the base metals.

I made the embossed browband of my helmet in copper, and it worked very well (then I gilded it, so it doesn't look like copper). But this was extremely thin copper, and I've worked with it before.

[adric]

thanks Eg!

not sure bout metric for weight but 16oz is one pound per sq ft and works out to bout 25ga IIRC. as to degree of distress- she is looking for a hammered finish- random but patterened hammer blows. i will have a bit extra to play with so i will just have to play with it i guess.

oh and yes it will all be hammer work for the rolls. BUT it is being worked over a solid base material so im hoping it can be beat into submission.

ANY BODY ELSE GOT any thing? 200$ in raw materials getting destroyed on purpose here! hoping it don't look like crap in the end

[HammerHand]

One way you could get the hammered look is to lay the sheet of copper on some pretty dense carpeting. Lay out the carpet as you would for your work space and slightly hammer with a small/ medium sized ball peen in the corner until you get the desired effect your looking for. I doubt you will be looking for a concave shape on any of it, so just spread your progression kind of sparattically.

You can also get a nice looking effect from hammering copper over rough asphalt, unfinished concrete, or gritty sandbox sand. And one can also get a really bizarre design from gently hammering over broken flat pieces of pane glass. The result looks like a shatterd piece of glass.

Just work slow with this because copper tears at the most unopportune time- like when your almost finished with your project.

Hope this helps.