In this article we will essentially talk about the embossing of copper sheets. This technique is easy and fun and with a little practice will allow you to create embossed sheets with which you can cover various objects or create elements of furniture.
Before moving on to describe the "how to", let's start talking about the materials that are used to work the copper embossed in such a way as to begin to know and distinguish them.
When we talk about copper sheets we must be clear about the differences between pure copper sheets and those of imitation copper.
Pure copper sheet
Copper sheet for embossing is also known as pure copper and is quite easy to find in the best hobby and fine arts stores.
Likewise, you can also find it online at Amazon or Etsy.
If you buy the product on Etsy it is very easy that it arrives directly at your home from the United States and since in the Anglo-Saxon world there have always been different units of measurement than in continental Europe it will be good to learn to disentangle terms such as "gauge" and "inches".
Gauge is the unit of measure for the diameter of a copper wire which, in a nutshell, corresponds to the thickness of the plate. Inches, on the other hand, are used to indicate the width and height dimensions of the sheet.
The thickness of the copper sheet can therefore be expressed in a Gauge number from 6 to 35. The higher the Gauge number, the thinner our sheet will be.
Conversion table Gauge millimetersTherefore, if in the process of buying you happen to come across the Gauge or even simply "Ga.", my warm invitation is to consult a conversion table Gauge / Millimeters like the one you can find here on the side.
The price per sheet varies according to thickness and size. Those who work professionally with this material most often buy it directly from the factory, this allows a safe saving but has the downside that the minimum order in the factory is 5 kg.
The thickness of copper sheets is also variable and ranges from 2 tenths of a millimeter (0.2 mm) up to 5 mm.
The thinnest sheets, therefore, appear similar to sheets of paper and about the size of an A4 sheet. Each manufacturer offers its own dimensions, it will be up to us to evaluate those that will be most suitable for the project we are going to realize.
The pure copper sheet does not have any kind of varnishing, therefore, in case of need, it is possible to contact a galvanic laboratory in order to carry out a gilding or silvering, both on the whole sheet and only on some parts chosen by us.
Fake copper sheet
When we buy a copper sheet we must pay attention to what the seller proposes and read carefully the characteristics of the material.
In some stores it is not always possible to find well-prepared personnel and some sales clerks, not knowing the existence of pure copper embossing, could sell you fake copper plates.
Image from basiccopper.com
Fake copper is easily recognizable because one side of the plate is copper colored while the other is silver colored.
What does this mean? It is simply a painted aluminum sheet and not pure copper.
The dimensions per single sheet can be the same but the thickness of the faux copper is smaller; it is generally a thickness of 1.5 tenths of a millimeter, or 0.15 millimeters.
The thinner the material, the more it is subject to deformations and dents that can occur even during simple transportation.
Absolutely avoid using fake copper plates if you intend to silver or galvanically gild some parts of the plate, as the plate is already painted and any plating would not adhere to the surface.
A little note: galvanic plating never sticks to aluminum, so keep this in mind in case you need to do it.
The fake copper sheets have a lower cost than those of pure copper and can be found in physical stores as well as online, it will be up to us to know how to distinguish them and I hope to have given with this article the necessary guidance to be able to.
The advice is to use this type of sheets in the event that the subject that we are going to emboss should have a silver background color, all other colors are easily applied with a brush on both sides.
Dapping Punches
The punches are the tools by means of which the copper plate can be mechanically embossed.
It is a tool with a cylindrical handle and a perfectly round head.
Normally you buy a whole set consisting of dapping punches of different sizes and therefore suitable for carrying out different jobs: from the smaller ones for the details to the larger ones for the "coarse" embossing.
The purchase of a complete set of dapping punches could be prohibitive because you could go on several hundred euros and, unless you intend to transform the hobby of embossing on metal in a real professional activity, perhaps you should start with a limited number of tools starting with the most commonly used.
Here is a pretty good set of dapping punches you see in the image can be purchased here:
The set of punches shown above has a low cost and can be more than valid to start working with copper with the technique of embossing.
No need to say that the thinner the sheet, the easier it will be to emboss, but even in this case, the downside is that the sheets tend to bend much more easily. So, if we want to cover a curved surface with an embossed copper sheet we will use a thin sheet but in other occasions it could be useful to use sheets having a certain consistency even if, obviously, more difficult to work.
Everything also depends on the type of equipment we have available to carry out the project.
The advice to those who have never applied with the embossing technique is to use common tools such as a ballpoint pen or a steel ball glued on top of a small aluminum tube. The inexperienced can thus acquire more practice and manual dexterity with thin sheets and then move on to thicker sheets and a little more professional equipment.
Be careful though: for thicker sheets it is good to have proper equipment otherwise you run the serious risk of breaking them!
How to emboss copper
The actual embossing is done starting from a basic drawing that we will have made freehand (if we have some artistic skills) or copying a pre-existing drawing.
The first step is to make a model on paper or print a model on paper.
We then take the copper plate on which we want to carve the design and after having placed the sheet with the design on the plate-maybe stopping the four sides with double-sided tape to prevent it from moving-we begin to carve the design with an awl.
Before starting work, place the plate on a dishcloth or a couple of sheets of kitchen paper, or a felt cloth. We avoid working on top of a wooden table to avoid etching/scratching that too, ruining it.
Normally, for professional use, a lead sheet is used under the sheet to be embossed but, given the price, for a hobbyist, it is preferable to use alternative methods that are equally effective.
At this point, removing the sheet of paper with the drawing you should be able to see the outline of the same engraved on the plate, above this track begin to pass with the ballpoint pen or punches of the appropriate size beginning to emboss in negative, in a three-dimensional way.
Seen on Pinterest byFlorida Celtic Art
Once you have finished the embossing you can turn the plate over and begin to go over all the outlines with a ballpoint pen to make them as sharp as possible.
In case of errors, the embossing technique allows you to correct them simply by turning the plate over again and going over the error until the drawing is even.
It is a technique, therefore, that allows margins of error thanks to the thinness of the plates that, being very soft, allow you to recover and start from scratch.
Fake copper, in general, does not need to be finished at the edges; pure copper, on the contrary, could be rather sharp and therefore must be handled with a minimum of attention.
In this case there are two alternative ways to try to soften the edges:
- you can fold the edge back on itself with beak pliers
- or you can place the edge on a flat surface and gently file it down with a small file. Remember that the thinner the edge, the more attention should be paid to avoid deforming it
At this point your work is finished and ready to be cut, painted, soldered, glued and possibly taken to the electroplating shop to be gilded or silvered.
I selected a couple of videos that summarize more or less all the steps I described in this article.