Forging a Skull – Thak Ironworks

FORGING A HUMAN SKULL

Written by: Robb Martin

Edited By: Rebecca Wickens and Erik Martin

Introduction

Human beings have always had a morbid fascination with the human skull. This could be because we are programmed to identify and make sense of human faces from an early age, and the skull is immediately recognizable as the substructure of the face. From a purely technical or aesthetic standpoint, skulls and bones, in general, provide an interesting illustration of the architectural principle that form follows function.

Beyond the scientific and aesthetic reasons, our fascination with the skull may be connected to our enduring and universal preoccupation with mortality and death, and what, if anything, happens after death. More than any other part of the skeleton, a skull is a poignant reminder that our lives have an end date after which our physical bodies will decay, leaving nothing behind but bones.

Because the skull is physical evidence of the life and death of a human being, it is easy to see how people from early in our history to present day have come to associate superstitious agency to this piece of anatomy. It has been used for religious, ritualistic and many other reasons related to the power of its symbolism and connection to life and death.

The skull has also been adopted as a motif for people who wish to inspire the fear of death in others. In this context, the symbol might be used to convey that the individual or group is so bold or strong that they don’t fear death themselves, or, perhaps, that enemies should be afraid of death at their hands. The use of this motif in this manner could explain why a large percentage of the population just thinks of the skull motif as badass or cool. It certainly meets my mandate for design – Would Thak Consider This Bad Ass – referenced in the video Forging a Vulture’s Head.

Academic musing aside, for the purposes of sculptural blacksmithing, the skull shape lends itself well to the forging process. And just as the skull is the substructure of the living face, this process serves as the foundation for forging several different human and humanoid heads. I will discuss some possible variations in future articles, but for now, you can see a growing number of examples on my YouTube channel, particularly under the 2020 Chess Set Challenge playlist.

Tools

I assume those undertaking this project are at the very least beginner blacksmiths with some working knowledge of the forging process and access to the basic tools described below. In addition to the basics, you will require some other tools necessary for sculptural blacksmithing, namely chisels, punches and different hammers.

The Basic Tools.

First and foremost, you need the use of a forge. The most common are coal and propane, although charcoal, electric and induction forges will work too. For this type of project, I recommend either coal or propane with coal being my preference in terms of efficiency and suitability.

In addition to a forge, you require an anvil and a proper vise, by which I mean a blacksmith’s post vise not a machinist vise. A machinist vise is woefully inadequate to withstand the pounding and twisting forces a post vise can. In addition to the big three – forge, anvil and vise – you need a general forging hammer and a spring fuller or guillotine fullering tool.

Sculptural Forging Tools.

Beyond the basic tools, for sculptural blacksmithing, it is helpful to have a variety of chisels, punches and hammers.

Like many blacksmiths, I make my own chisels and punches to suit the purpose for which they will be used. I have made it my practice through the years to collect old coil springs as I come across them. I have all the mechanics I know on alert to save them for me.

Spring steel is typically 5160 and is a wonderful alloy for making many forging tools. I cut the coils into 6-7” long segments and forge them into various shapes. I then refine the tools with grinders, sometimes to a polished finish.

In my sculptural forging tool kit, I have various chisels and punches, including:

Dull chisels
Sharp chisels
Centre punches
Round punches
D punches
Teardrop punches
Bird’s eye punches

In addition to the general forging hammer, I find it useful to have several sizes of ball pein hammers on hand during sculptural forging. There are some additional tools I could include here but they are beyond the scope of this article, we will cover them at a later time.

Materials

I recommend starting with a ¾ inch square bar of mild steel about 24 inches long. It is big enough to produce the basic shape and introduce some detail without being too unwieldy. Using a 1 inch or 1 ½ inch bar increases the mass exponentially, requiring a LOT more force to hammer it into shape (assuming other factors, such as heat, are kept constant).

Process

Forging the Head

The first step in the process is to create the basic shape of the skull, of which the most prominent feature is the mass at the back of the skull.

Begin by heating up and bending the bar about 1 inch over the far edge of the anvil.

After bending to a 90-degree angle, turn the bar over and begin hammering down the corner to curl the bar back on itself, creating a “jelly roll” shape. The end result should look like ¾ of a full circle.

Knock the corners off the roll to create a spherical-looking knob, which will form the back of the skull.

Sculpting the Face

Once you have the basic shape of the skull, it is time to sculpt the features of the face. For this process, it is important to make a distinction between sculptural forging and subtractive sculpting. In sculptural forging, you are essentially shoving the steel around much like a piece of clay or really hot play-doh. As a result, the overall mass of the piece remains the same. With subtractive sculpture, such as is used for carving wood or stone, you are chipping away bits of the whole in order to reveal the final form. The distinction between these two art forms is why some woodworkers have a difficult time transitioning to sculptural forging.

The first step in sculpting the face is to delineate the cheeks. This is accomplished by placing the bar in a spring fuller just below the spherical knob forming the back of the skull and striking the fuller. The intent is to create a hollow on either side of the face, and, in the process, displace metal upwards to form the cheekbones.

While the steel is still in the fuller, draw out the steel below the cheek hollows until it is the same thickness as the fuller.

The next step is to sculpt the eye sockets. Start by getting heat on the bar and then quickly grab it in the vice. Make sure the vice is clamped tight to hold the work securely. Using a centre punch, begin to set the eyes. Start close together, making sure the sockets are symmetrical and level. On the next heat, begin pushing the eye sockets out and upward to square off and enlarge the shape of the eye.

For the nose, use a centre punch, starting straight in and then pushing upward to create the nasal ridge between the eyes. See additional diagrams for this part of the process below. Use a teardrop punch to create the hollows below the cheekbones and refine the nasal ridge.

The formation of the brow ridge is a good example of sculptural forging. In essence, you are pushing metal down from the top of the skull to create additional height at the point of the brow ridge. In order to do this, I suggest using a D-punch to get the right height, and then blending or smoothing out the slope with a teardrop punch.

Getting these changes in the plane right is essential to give the skull a more anatomically accurate aspect. Otherwise, you will end up with a cartoonish result. It might still look skull-like but will lack the visual impact that a bit of attention to anatomical detail can provide.

From the above illustrations, you can see that the nasal ridge should be the highest point, the brow ridge the next highest point and the hollows just below the cheekbones, the lowest point. Getting the relative heights of these three major planes will be enough to achieve a more realistic skull

Once you have the fundamentals in place, use a dull chisel to delineate the tooth line establishing the bottom of the top jaw. [It should be noted at this point, if it is not already clear, that this process is for making the upper part of a skull with no lower jaw. A skull with a lower jaw is certainly possible but requires a different approach early on. If there is interest in this type of skull, I can discuss it in a later article or video.] To do this, cut straight in with the chisel and push upwards slightly to raise the area where the teeth will go. Drop the area on the sides below this cut.

Then take a tiny chisel and cut a series of vertical cuts to delineate the teeth. Tiny arches can be cut in to form the top of the teeth if you want to create a higher level of detail.

Depending on the intended use for the piece, you may choose to finish it in a number of ways. Typically, you want to buff out the highlights using sandpaper or a wire brush then wax or lacquer the piece.

Conclusion

The skull motif has limitless applications to add pizzazz to your forge work. I have used this design for door handles, Ballard claw style furniture feet, cane handles, air-gate handles, sword pommels and gear shift knobs. Future articles will build on this process to show you how simple variations on this basic form can be used to produce many different human and humanoid heads. You can find the video where I originally explained this process here on my YouTube channel.