Feel My Biceps

Uncovered a very heavy package in the bottom of a chest of drawer and when I opened it there was some more "stuff-I-may-be-able-to-do-something-with-one-day"

Bronze coins that were withdrawn from circulation in 1992. That's right,19 years ago! (Anyone else guilty of squirreling that long?)

My eye lit up - and visions of pendant bases, earring disks and bead caps danced in my head. All I had to do was to hammer them flat.

A quick heat and anneal, seeing as it is bronze, a few taps with my little girly hammer on the bench block and it became clear that more brute force was needed. 
'Liberated' my husband's best hammer and tried the engineers vice. 

Now an anvil is only as good as what it is mounted on and what was under the engineers vice was definitely not substantial enough.

With my map torch, water bucket, hammer, haemostats and coins in tow I wandered around looking for something more 'industrial strength'

Found this.

3 heats and anneals and much bashing later, the inadequacies of a common claw hammer surfaced. 

Boy these coins are sure tough little hombres! Clearly the only way I was going to be able to beat these little suckers into submission was to go for the really big gun tool. 

You know the kind - one shade off cannon grey, a hand grip made from leather from really angry cows and a label on the side that says "naaa nah nah naaa nah consider yourself hammered"

All I had to do was lift it up and the weight did the rest. 10 wallops per side, no heating/annealing needed!

Here's the result.

Here is my hammer

So do you want to see my new anvil? 

It's really unique, bet I'm the only one with one, you will be soooo jealous even though it won't fit into my studio.