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tlineopen  American Silver before sterling
tline3open  spoon-making

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Author Topic:   spoon-making
akgdc

Posts: 289
Registered: Sep 2001

iconnumber posted 02-28-2006 05:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for akgdc     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
How long would it have taken - more or less - for a typical 18th-century silversmith to make a spoon? Do any of our silversmith members have an idea?

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 02-28-2006 08:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don’t know.

What I can tell you is that the demonstration Geoffrey Blake did for us while we were at ONC (see; Our visit to Old Newbury Crafters) was great. And it only took a few minutes of hammering before a small piece of silver began to look like a spoon. We didn’t have the time to witness all the finishing steps, which I think could have taken a little bit longer. Geoffrey paticapates here from time to time. When he sees this post I am sure he will give use the time line.

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argentum1

Posts: 602
Registered: Apr 2004

iconnumber posted 02-28-2006 11:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for argentum1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As WEV said it will take a silversmith to answer the question. I would think the timeline will vary considerably depending upon when the spoon was made. 18th century and your looking at melting silver, pouring it into a mould then hammering into a suitable size. Then comes the actual spoon making process. If a spoon of the 19th century then it is a partial to full machine manufacture process requiring much less time.
It will be interesting to see what the answer is. An 18th century teapot made in williamsburg takes about one week. There is a website in which a silversmith at Williamsburg is interviewed.

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argentum1

Posts: 602
Registered: Apr 2004

iconnumber posted 02-28-2006 11:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for argentum1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Scott, please forgive my name mixup. Senility is finally catching up.

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argentum1

Posts: 602
Registered: Apr 2004

iconnumber posted 02-28-2006 11:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for argentum1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
OK, I am back again. I just reviewed the Williamsburg site and the answer was - "If I worked on it 10 hours a day it would take about 200 to 225 hours or 5 weeks". I typed in 'how long does it take to make a silver spoon by hand' and the Williamsburg interview comes up but the teapot is the only item to be given a time estimate.

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agleopar

Posts: 850
Registered: Jun 2004

iconnumber posted 03-01-2006 07:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for agleopar     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
James Potter and his son in London (they have since moved and I don't know if they are still in business) could make, start to finish, a ratail table spoon in one hour.
That was about 1/2 hour for the forging and the rest for the finishing.
When I make spoons it usually ranges from 2 hours to as much as 15 for a complicated one. But then I only make them occasionally and am not a full time spoon maker.
Hopefully Tom at Old Newbury Crafters will give you the official story.

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akgdc

Posts: 289
Registered: Sep 2001

iconnumber posted 03-01-2006 09:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for akgdc     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for all the helpful responses. I was interested, per Argentum's question, in the pre-mechanized process of the 18th century, when a spoon would have been hammered out of an ingot, not stamped. An hour sounds plausible to me. I wonder if a maker would work on one spoon at a time, though, or - say, if he were making a half-dozen tablespoons - do them concurrently. Certainly many fulltime spoonmakers must have been quite fast.

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FredZ

Posts: 1070
Registered: Jun 99

iconnumber posted 03-01-2006 02:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FredZ     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I too amd an ocassional spoon maker and I can forge and finish a teaspoon in less than three hours. I spend much time designing as I forge and I do not have a spoon stake to form the bowl easily. ONC and other spoon makers use foot presses to form the bowl. This will reduce forming and finishing time substatially.

It is most practical to forge several spoons at the same time. It helps maintain consitency.

Fred

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middletom

Posts: 467
Registered: May 2004

iconnumber posted 03-09-2006 08:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for middletom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As Scott suggested, I finally read this thread. It takes us about 29 minutes to make a colonial style (read simple) teaspoon to the point at which it goes to the finisher. How long it would have taken the 18th century silversmith to melt silver and pour the ingot, I"ve no idea. The finishing process is basically the same today as then except that we have electric motors for the polishing and probably more advanced polishing wheels. Paul Rvere used pumice grit and then other compounds to follow, perhaps even tripoli as that dates back quite a way, I believe.
The foot drop we use is old and the technology is basically that of the guillotine, so such a devise may have been available in a larger shop in the 18th century. The Revere house folks have told me that Revere did not leave behind a record of what tools he had in his shop, so we can't make a direct comparison.
I would guess, the, that a teaspoon then might have taken closer to an hour.

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