Chapter VIII: How to Make a Hat Pin

By this time you will have many pieces of scrap copper on hand. These should be kept in a small box and used whenever suitable.

_Material:_ A piece No. 20 gauge, 1-1/2 × 1/2 ins., is enough to make the head of a hat pin. The pin part must be of steel, copper is too soft. Buy any cheap hat pin in a dry goods store. (A cent apiece.) Break the glass top or black top and use the pin for the copper head.

_Tools:_ One chasing tool, half moon; shears, dividers, planishing hammer.

_Design:_ Hat pin with hexagonal top (6 sides) 1-1/2 ins. across. With your dividers draw a circle on the piece of copper, having a diameter of 1-1/2 in. With the radius of the circle, mark off the circumference into 6 equal parts. Draw lead-pencil lines from one point to another, just touching the circle at these points. With your shears cut along these straight lines. Now you have a 6-sided piece of copper 1-1/2 ins. across. Place this piece of copper on the flat end of the hard wood block (the grain end of the wood), and make impressions on it with the half moon tool like your designs. This tool you can make yourself. Take a piece of steel, 5/16 in. square or round, heat one end to a red heat and flatten it, like the flat end of a chisel. File the end just flattened blunt and rounding. This end should be hardened to prevent it from wearing rough. To do this heat it to a dark red heat and plunge it into cold water. Place your tool on the upper sides of this plate and drive it with a hammer into the copper, being careful not to drive it through into the wood. If you drive the tool through you will spoil the design and have rough edges. This makes a simple raised or embossed design and is quite easily done.

When this pattern has been stamped in, curve the piece of copper any shape you wish by placing it in the depression in the hard wood block. Place the embossed side down, and with the round end of the planishing hammer, drive with light blows so as not to flatten the design. In this way, you can shape it as you wish. The top could now be soldered right on to the pin itself, but that would not make a strong hat pin. It would be weak and too easily broken from the head. In order to have a strong hat pin we make a little mushroom shaped pin holder which is fastened on the under part of the head of the hat pin and in which the pin itself fits.

Their Shop is a Barn, and Tree Stumps Furnish the Hard Wood Blocks.]

HOW TO MAKE THE PIN HOLDER

_Material:_ Copper, No. 24, 3/8 in. square to make the flat disc. Copper No. 24, 3/8 in. length and about 5/16 in. wide to make the cylinder.

With a pair of dividers draw a circle 3/8 in. in diameter. Cut out the circle. Place this little disc on the flat end of the hard wood block and with a punch make a hole 1/8 in. in diameter in the middle of the disc. On the same end of the block, file (using round file) a groove right across the corner, about 1/8 in. deep. Place the small piece of copper (3/4 × 5/16 ins.), over the groove. Take the steel wire belonging to the hat pin and place it on top of the copper and over the groove. With the hammer, strike so as to drive the pin, and at the same time the copper, into the depression. The copper sinks into the groove and the two sides lap up on each side of the pin. Drive the two sides down until they lap around the wire, the edges meeting. This makes a copper cylinder which fits exactly around the wire of the pin. Take the cylinder off, fit it into the holes of the small disc. Wash the two pieces with a borax solution, place a little solder on, and solder the disc to the cylinder. After cooling the piece in water, shape the disc so that it fits the under side of the hat pin top. Polish the end of the wire pin with an emery cloth, also the top of the pin holder and the inside of the hat pin top. Push the wire into the little cylinder so that it comes flush with the disc.

Now the pin is all ready to solder to the head, but there is great difficulty in getting it in straight. In order to do this I make a little device out of copper, which helps me in getting things on straight. Take a piece of copper 1 in. wide and 5 ins. long. Bend each end, one 2 ins. and the other 3/4 in., both in the same direction at right angles. With the shears cut a V-shaped piece in the short end. This little stand is good for soldering any upright piece to a flat piece, when they should be at right angles to each other.

Place the top of the pin on the long leg of the stand and, with the pin in the slot, place in proper position and solder.

HAT PIN HOLDER

Here is a good design for a hat pin holder, a welcome addition to any dresser. The design is very simple and the holder is easily made if one follows out the directions carefully.

_Material:_ Disc 3-1/2 ins. of No. 20 gauge, for the base. One piece of 3/4-in. copper tubing, 4 ins. long for the body. Solder.

_Tools:_ Iron rod, 3/8-in. round, 8 ins. long. Hard wood block. Planishing hammer.

_Directions:_ Bore a 3/4-in. hole one inch deep in the wooden block. Place the 3-1/2-in. disc over this hole and, with the round end of the planishing hammer, drive the centre of the disc into the hole 1/4 in. Be careful not to drive a hole through the copper disc. Turn the piece upside down. Place the iron rod in the vise. Put the bossed end of the disc on the end of the iron rod and flatten the boss down. Shape the base by rounding the edge down all around. See that it lies flat on the table, without rocking.

_Stem:_ All copper tubing should be annealed before any work is done on it. After annealing, place the 3/8-in. rod through the hole of the tube and with the wooden mallet drive down on the tubing, beginning two inches from the end and using the hard wood block for an anvil. This constant driving and turning reduces the copper to any size required. We must make the end of this tubing fit the 3/8-in. rod. The tube must widen toward the other end, which is beaten out. Place it on the small end of the anvil stake. Drive with the raising hammer, turning it all the time. In this way you constantly increase the diameter, making the cup-shaped top like the design. Now the stem and base are ready for soldering. File the ends perfectly smooth and level. Bind in places and solder, as before. The filing, finishing, and polishing must be done as with other copper pieces.

Hat pin holders are usually filled with some soft material. The hat pins are pushed down into this, which helps to keep them in place. Some are covered on the top with a metal disc which has five or six holes bored through, a little larger than the bar of the hat pin. These holes are drilled into the disc and then the disc is soldered on to the top of the holder. The pins cannot fall out with such an arrangement, and they are not likely to gather on one side and tip the holder over.