Tonights demo will be about spirals and scrolls. Specifically laying them out and making jigs.

I generally just bend scrolls by eye but many need to lay them out. The easy way is on a grid like this.

This grid is a set of concentric circles 1/2″ (13mm) apart and divided into right angles, 45’s and 22.5’s

The scroll is laid out in equal steps. Starting at the center

Here we have placed a point on each 90 and 45 degree line moving out one circle at a time.

If you put a point on every dividing line as you move out the circles you get a faster more open spiral.

But you can also skip more than one dividing line and get a slower tighter spiral.

Here we have skipped 2 lines between each point. When we layout the scroll we can divide the “skipped” lines into thirds to make a smoother spiral.

Using the same grid you can layout any kind of spiral to any scale.

Once you have your spiral scrolls laid out you will want to make a jig if you need to make more than a few exactly alike.

There are several methods of making scroll jigs or benders.

This simple jig is made of 1/8″ angle iron and 1/8″ by 1″ flat bar. It was used to make identical scrolls in 1/2″ square stock.

The image is out of shape due to the rectangular image being forged into a square. . .

This jig was used to make two ends of an “S” scroll that were different sizes. One end was pulled around to a chalk mark roughly at the cross bar, the other was pulled all the way around.

Using the same jig for both ends gives a pleasing sense of continuity.

This jig is made from a forged “fish tail” scroll. The tapering stock forges more naturally into a scroll if you are working by eye.

The fishtail also sticks up higher than the other parts so that you get the effect of a stepped or progressive jig that can make more than one turn.

This jig is also welded to a piece of angle iron so that it can be clamped in a vise. Vise mountable tooling is one of the handiest things you can do in the blacksmith shop.

This is a scroll bender attachment for a Hossfeld bender.

It works by having a hinged portion that swings out of the way so that the bar to be bent can be inserted.

As the stock wraps around the bender the hinged portion can swing in and a spiral of more than 360 degrees can be bent.

Normally these production benders produce an ugly flat end on the stock. However, if you are forging a bean end or fishtail on your scroll you can make a bender like this that accepts that style end.

Questions?

looks like the Golden Mean in a spider web – fascinating!

Doug, It can be bent hot or cold. Normally the tight center part is bent hot and then the rest cold.

It takes me about 15 minutes to make one of these and I get $20 for them.

when bending by eye or your first scroll for the jig do you use a set of posts, a bending tool of some sort ?

the Golden Mean can be found all over nature, flat

Where did you pick this up Guru? It’s a lot simpler than laying it out with rectangles.:)

found this a while back, might be of interest..freebie.. GRAPH PAPER PRINTER can be downloaded from the author’s website : http://perso.easynet.fr/~philimar/

FT, all true spirals are mathematically progressive. Those who try to fit everything into those rectangles are fanatics.

you indicate one of the first jigs you showed us was 1/8″ thick, how heavy of scroll material can be worked on an 1/8″ jig?

On that jig I bent 1/2″ square. The first 4-6″ were bent hot. The rest cold.

Most of my scrolls get bent over the horn of the anvil or just curled up hot with a hammer.

I only make jigs when they have to fit a specific space and you need more than 2 or 3.

Hi Guru – I downloaded a picture of that first jig, and don’t quite see how it’s used. Could you elaborate on some of the details?

The Hossfeld type is expensive to make OR purchase. However, if you are going to make a couple thousand cold bent scrolls it pays off quickly.

The “S” scrolls made with this one had to fit existing wooden brackets that made a triangle.

After scrolling the S’s were fit into a triangular for the final fit.

This was part one of two. Bill Epps will be doing the second half, “Scroll Ends” in a few weeks.

These and several other benders can be seen in our Benders article on the 21st Century page.

If there are no more questions, I’ll say good night folks!