Here are some photos of us working on silver medals which are to be presented to the Grand Slam team.

These silver medals are being presented by the Cork City Council and the Cork County Council on 13th May 2009. The medals are all cut by hand including the logos which are cut out by hand and then soldered on to the medal.

When the piece has been soldered and cleaned in acid they are then hand polished using a lathe.





They are then hand engraved on both sides to represent the County Council and the City Council.





The finished solid silver piece measures 50mm in diametre and is 2mm thick.

I’m putting up a picture of my bench if you can look past the mess it shows some of the tools we use! The yellow dockets are used for each job that comes in to the workshop.

• The V shaped board on the front, called a peg, is used to support the piece you are working on.
• Pig skin below the bench is used to collect the scrap and filings of metal that can then be remelted.
• Piercing frame (on the right) used for cutting using very fine blades.
• Mallet (right) which is made from rolled raw hide is used to shape metal without marking it.
• Ring stick (far right) used to check ring sizes.
• Solder (left) this little plastic syringe holds the solder which is in paste as it is mixed with a flux. Solder can be boughtt in wire and panel form also.
• Draw plate (left) this plate has different size holes which we use to pull wire through to bring it down in size.
• Digital callipers (left) used to give exact measurements like thickness of metal.

• Draw tongs (far left) used to pull wire through draw plates.

Eileen's Desk.