Steampunk burlesque fans

The idea just came to me, a hybrid plan out of the piling-up scraps in the shop, art, performance and muse influence. Madame has always inspired me and my best works are often for her. Copper roofing remnants, a coil of soft copper water supply line, and brass door kick plates were base supplies. What follows is an explanation on the building of the fans, later I will write about the processes involved in individualized detail.

While I always counsel “start small”, I seldom listen to my own advice. This is the project that set me down the path of tinkering and etching. To finance it I sold, with honesty, one tool that was a pit trap in my toolbox. One of those tools that should save time and effort, but because of design flaws have aged poorly and ends up making it worth pulling out air hoses and what not. It does make me reflect that my Grandfather’s tools still work and are worth repairing when they don’t. I must ask, why are not the ones built in this decade? But I digress….

Feathers for fans of this scale are expensive even when bought in bulk, but a nice gentleman at Fabulous Feather made sure I was getting the right stock. I would recommend calling if you don’t know feathers, instead of point and clicking on the aether, because if your polite and ask good questions, you can get a education to build further knowledge upon. Even if you value efficiency and time over the cost of social interaction, when working with new materials is a time to talk to those who know their trade. Let us just say that there is more to the plumage of the feathered reptile descendants of the dinosaurs than breed, color, and length.

As I waited for feathers I did some reading and corresponded with some fellow craftsmen on the aether. My design became a little more refined, defined and customized to Madame. Design sometimes is fore thought, but when learning to work materials in new ways, it pays to be flexible. For this project there were four basic steps: the structural core of the fan; the cutting and etching of the cog and flora design; the joining of the layers; the adding of the feathers. The middle two steps required the most research, learning, re-tooling in the shop.

I constructed the core of the fans on a semi-circle of copper, an inch smaller across that the outer shell was intended to be. Using the knowledge that half a circle is a 180 degrees, it was easy to scratch 13 well spaced lines to place the extensions along. I cut extensions from copper tube, 3/8″ soft plumbing, cut to length using a plumber’s pipe cutter and reamed to remove the internal burs. I mashed flat the first, say, ¾ inch, of one end and drilled two small holes in it. Because I know my own work, each extension was numbered with Sharpie and its holes continued into semi-circular piece. I cleaned and lightly fluxed all pieces where solder was desired. I wired each extension in its spot with old telephone wire and held the other end of the tubes with spacers of “u” shaped tie wire. After a touch of heat from the torch more plumbers flux was added in the desired areas, then it was all soldered together in a utilitarian manor with plumbers solder. I used plumbers solder here because of its proprieties and the fact it is not visible on the finished product. These two pieces were allowed to cool without quenching and harden.

For the Cog and Flora design plate, I laid out the cut line on a paper template and scratched the line into the brass door kick plate with a carbide stylus. I used a jeweler’s saw to cut the brass. Your first project with a jewelers saw has quite a learning curve, and even once you get a feel for it you will break these fine blades with shocking regularity, so buy them by the gross. For the inside work I drilled 1/16″ holes, after a pilot ding, in the scrap areas near the hard turns in the cuts so the saw blade could place up though them for an inside cut. Cogs and other detail work meant this step took awhile.

Once cut I deburred the project and finalized its shape with jewelers files and emery cloth. I covered the pieces neatly in clear packing tape as a resistor, then cut out and removed the area to be etched. Because of the piece’s size and the equipment I have, the etch was done in acid. The design plate is mounted on a clamshell a ¼ inch large circumference than the design plate, with extra material figured in for the bend around the bottom of the core. I did this with the lowest temperature jeweler’s silver solder and self-pickling flux. (I do promise a more detailed writing on what I learned about soldering, but it needs to be its own post.) This step ends with lots of polishing and cleaning.

Now that the design plate is mounted to the clamshell it needs to be affixed to the core. I slid the design assembly over the core and gently tightened them with a rubber mallet and a wooden surface, then riveted the two together. I made small rivets from softened 16 gauge copper wire. I peened one end over before inserting in to the well-sized holes, through the front clamshell rim, the extension, and out the back clamshell rim. What stuck though was trimmed and peened round as possible. While I have done much hand riveting in past projects, be warned that peening cold rivets in soft metal is an acquired skill. All the more so for homemade ones of thin electrical wire! So if you’re going to try it, practice it on scraps first. Once again this step ends with lots of polishing and cleaning.

Adding the feathers was amazingly simple after all else. Thirteen thinner end feathers went in the 13 extensions, then 12 fatter-ended feathers went between the extensions. I used hot glue to hold them in place. It’s a nice mix of bonding and easy of feather replacement. I know Madame well, and at some point the fans will require replacement feathers. After a little more polishing, they were ready to (carefully) wrap.