Coppersmithing

Last year was the sixth anniversary of our civil union (Iron, traditional), and Melanie found a blacksmith in Atlanta that was hosting a workshop that coincided with the date. We had a lot of fun and learned a bit about a new skill.

This weekend, we celebrated our seventh anniversary (Copper, traditional), and I reached out to a friend in Jasper who has a forge. Although my friend had only ever made one other spoon, he agreed to allow us to come up and use his equipment and experience to help us make our own copper spoons.
I found a copper blank that would make two spoons on Amazon and got it shipped in plenty of time for the plan.

The blanks were cut from a 12" long 1/4 x /1/4 x 5/8 copper rod. We fashioned the ingot, the knob on the end that will become the bowl, first, then drew out and ornamented our handles before we made our spoon bowls. Copper works a lot easier than steel, and I found it preferable to do all my handle ornamentation cold and only used the heat on the bowl, Melanie works with a much lighter hammer, so she preferred to let the forge do its work before she started banging.

Melanie left more material on the ingot, so hers was about the perfect size for eating.
My spoon wound up with a daintier bowl, but we are both pleased with the experience and the result.