making of the 2008 diefenderfer christmas brass

8/14/2019 Making of the 2008 Diefenderfer Christmas Brass

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Making of The 2008 Diefenderfer Christmas Brass

The traditional Diefenderfer Christmas Brass has annually evolved inits style and fabrication process. This is a photo essay of the 2008process.

First 16-gauge brass is etched with the standard templates used every year a heart for my daughter Kelly and a star for her son Christopher.My shop is equipped with mostly vintage tools. That scribe is the first oldtool you will see being used. It is very nice to hold and use. The bench isa refinished vintage mahogany jeweler’s bench that was retired from a jeweler’s shop in Connecticut.

My shop is mostly stocked with vintage tools. I like old tools and in a lotof procedures I like to do use the old ways to make things. I like old steel,

wood handles that have been used, and the older styles and shapes. Vastamounts of money can be saved buying used tools and in manyinstances you get a better quality tool than those made today for a muchlower price. I have also made new friends by purchasing tools fromcraftsmen that are pleased to sell their tools to someone who appreciatesthem and puts them to use.

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With the outlines etched the brass is ready for cutting. I use a jeweler’s

saw now. Originally I used a shears to cut out the shapes. The shearscould only cut a much thinner gauge of brass. Shearing also curled thesheet brass, which had to be hammered flat after cutting. The shapes were rough and the brass was thinner than I liked. Certainly no two evercame out exactly the same.

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Once I learned how to use the jeweler’s saw properly I could produce amuch cleaner edge requiring less filing. Sawing enables me to use aheavier gauge brass that produces a more solid brass ornament with

thicker edges I am happier with. The sheet stays flat with no curl tohammer out, this all results in a nice flat standard shape for theornament.

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This saw frame is referred to in old tool catalogs as “A very popularstyle”. It is indeed so popular that this one is over one hundred years old yet you can still purchase a similar one new. I prefer my old one.

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The shapes are finished being cut out. As you can see there is very littleto file and the shapes are flat. The slight curl that can be seen in theheart is a result of cutting the blank from the larger sheet with shears.

It’s nothing that requires hammering like in past years. That very thin saw blade enables a piercing cut that can be

maneuvered tightly to follow any outline very closely. It requires constanttension to prevent breaking. The saw frame does that very efficiently. That is why it has been hard to improve upon the design for over acentury. Of course no tool can compensate for bad technique and I brokemany blades till I developed a patient stroke and learned not to over-maneuver the path of the cut. The technique is to relax and picture theblade following the line while keeping it moving vertically. Don’t forceanything-just watch it happen. The old ways are cool.

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My sawing hasn’t gotten perfect yet so there is still filing to be done.Moving from coarse to fine, various grades of files and buff sticks areused to clean up the edges.

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This is the punch I use to make the holes. I originally drilled the holes which produced a burr and distorted the brass. They also were neverquite centered properly. This punch does a beautiful job. It was retiredfrom a watch factory. It was made in 1975 shortly before the DiefenderferChristmas Brass tradition began. This thirty two year old tool is one of the younger ones being used in my shop.

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Next the brass shapes move to the buffing station. It is equipped with afiltered blower and in a location away from the benches. This vintagedual spindle Vigor® buffing motor and blower is a very useful timesaverin my shop. It was retired from the same jeweler’s shop as my benches.

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The edges were finished with various grades of emery paper on buff sticks to remove file marks. I then use rouge to polish the pieces prior toengraving the designs. A “firm but loose” grip is what is required here,it’s easier to learn than to describe. If that buffing wheel grabs the piece you are holding, the piece is the only thing you want yanked into themachine, not your hand. That wheel was spinning at thousands of R.P.M. when this picture was

taken. I am amazed that the camera could capture a stopped image of it.

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After the shapes are buffed to a nice finish they are ready to move to yet another station in the shop. This is the engraving bench. This benchhas a lower height than the jeweler’s or the watchmaker’s benches. This

enables a better sitting position for hand engraving at an engraver’s ball. This bench is also used as the station for the jeweler’s lathe.

The engraver’s ball is vintage, purchased used. It’s a Victor® and came with all the attachments. All the gravers were purchased used but someare new old stock. Those are the ones with new handles on them. Thereis also a vintage Crocker® graver sharpener retired from Parkland College wherever that is. I dress the gravers with a vintage two sided stone withred oxide on one side and white Arkansas stone on the other. Handengraving takes almost as much time sharpening as it does engraving. The gravers have to be kept extremely sharp with polished edges forclean cuts. A dull graver will slip and if it doesn’t injure you it will

certainly mar the piece. That little scrap of brass is used for test cuts.

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The designs are developed on paper and transferred to the brass usingChinese white to make a transfer surface on the polished brass thentaping the paper image to the shape and etching it through the paper

with a dull scribe. The paper is carefully removed and the lines visible inthe Chinese white are scratch traced with a sharp scribe into the brass.

I do all the engraving by hand. Yes “the old fashioned way”. Some cutsare made using a chasing hammer to tap the graver for a desired effect. The chasing hammer was purchased new. Good jeweler’s hammers areone tool I don’t often see selling much cheaper than a new one of similarquality.

I began to engrave the designs after the original method of simplypainting the design on the brass was proven to be less than durable.

Because these ornaments are meant to last a lifetime or longer a morepermanent process was needed and engraving has met that need nicely.

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The piece is essentially finished after engraving. All buffing andpolishing was done before the engraving. The designs portray somethingfrom the past year of the person’s life. My grandson lost his first tooth

during 2008 but when he was consulted he felt that his electric scooter was much more significant.

The year is always part of every design and also dates the piece. Eachpiece is signed “DIEFENDERFER” on the back framed with a singleengraved line. Most of these are engraved with an electric impact-engraving pen. (1972 Vibrograf ®) Some are done with a hand graver.Whatever mood struck me at the time.

Now I need to prevent the brass from tarnishing. The first few years Imade these ornaments they were simply cut from brass and painted withthe design. After the brass began to tarnish there was no way to polish

them without damaging the painted image. I began to coat them withclear acrylic spray. The acrylic coat prevented the tarnish but I never wassatisfied with the finish and texture it produced. In 2007 I began to usea 14Kt gold plated finish on the engraved pieces.

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Now we move to the chemical bench. This is where all the cleaning

machines and electroplating apparatus are located. First the pieces gothrough the ultrasonic cleaner where ammonia and soap is used toremove all traces of buffing compounds and dirt. Then they are elecro-cleaned to remove oils before going into the green Nickel Mirror platingbath. This produces a nickel base plate to separate the gold layer fromthe brass and prevent brass tarnish bleeding through the gold finish.

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The final plating bath is the blue colored 14Kt. Gold bath. In this photo

you can see the heart being plated using a pure gold anode. TheDIEFENDERFER signature is visible on the back of the heart. The VigorElectro-Plater® is a 1980 model rectifier which was purchased used froma jeweler’s shop although it appears to never have been used. Thiselectroplate finish has solved the tarnishing problems and produces avery nice finished product.

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Here we see the finished ornaments for 2008. My daughter had herfirst book published this year so her piece is engraved with book andquill. My grandson cherishes his electric scooter most of all this year so

his piece is engraved with his scooter.

For a final touch a bit of color is added by painting the year digits. Redfor even numbered years, and green for odd numbered years. The colorsare traditional and have been carried down from the original ornamentsthat had painted designs.

Daniel D. Diefenderfer“The Dutchman”

Watchmaker - Jeweler

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making of the 2008 diefenderfer christmas brass

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