Bending: Where the Curve Starts Is a Decision

Bring a narrow band to bright heat and leave the bar dark either side. Cold metal will not bend, so the deformation is confined to the hot band — the same lever the upsetting rung uses. A sharp corner needs a very short hot zone; a gentle curve needs a long one. So decide the shape first, then heat to match it, rather than heating and hoping. Use the fire's shape to help. A narrow slot in the fuel, or the work laid across rather than into the hot zone, heats a band instead of a length. This is the heating-evenly rung again, used deliberately in reverse.

The HORN gives any radius you want — move along it. Lay the bar across and pull down, or hammer it round; the horn supports the inside of the curve while the metal wraps. The anvil EDGE gives a sharp corner. Hang the bar over the edge with the hot band exactly at the edge line, and strike down — the metal folds over the radius of that edge, so a sharp edge gives a crisp corner and a rounded one gives a soft bend. The VICE holds one side while you lever the other, which gives the most control for a precise angle. A bending fork in the hardy hole does the same on the anvil and leaves both hands free.

Draw the shape full size on a steel plate or a sheet of paper and offer the work to it after every few blows. The eye is a poor judge of an angle and a worse one of a curve. For a repeated shape — a set of scrolls, a row of identical brackets — make a simple jig or a bending fork so each piece is formed against the same former. That is the story-stick principle from the marking-out batch: one reference, used repeatedly, beats measuring each piece. Correct while it is still hot. A bend that has gone cold can be reheated, but every extra heat costs scale and risks grain growth, and a shape corrected three times rarely looks as crisp as one made right in two heats.