Creativity is a word many tend to associate with art and artistic endeavours. People tend to think of the writing of books or the creation of a sculpture or painting. Such a perspective is more modern than ancient. In the past, whether the creative process involved the use of bone, clay, stone, wood or metal, the result was not restricted to either artistic or functional. This is particularly true when it came to metalwork.
Metalworking
Metalworkers have long created both decorative and useful objects. The earliest artisans did not separate the two qualities. Their workpieces emerged from their shops as aesthetically appealing but also highly functional items. They produced drinking vessels as well as ritual objects. They added decorative touches to architectural structures and crafted functional but beautiful weapons. They formed these creative but functional objects initially using basic tools such as hammers.
However, shaping metal today involves a wider array of tools. The evolution was slow, but the modern metalworking shop contains a variety of sophisticated equipment capable of cutting, shaping and finishing any metalwork that passes through the shop. Among the most common machines are:
- Drilling Machines: They drill holes
- Grinders: A Grinder removes miniscule parts to produce a smooth finish
- Lathes: They perform a variety of functions including boring, cutting, drilling and threading
- Milling Machines: This machine removes any excess material performing either face or peripheral milling. The machines can be part of a vertical or horizontal machining centre
- Shapers: This shapes a workpiece through cutting.
- Shearing Machine: Operators employ them for cutting sheet metal.
CNC increases the capability to address work that is more complex quickly.
Metalwork
Modernity has a tendency to separate the creative from the practical. However, in metalworking the two can collide, meshing to produce a product that meets the two criteria. Even in mass production, metalwork can project an aura of creative and aesthetic beauty while meeting a purely functional demand.
