Bruce's Cymbal - Raffle to Reveal!

At the DC Take Over Festival we ran a hammering stand where festival goers could have a go at hammering a cymbal themselves. The finished piece was raffled off at the end of the festival and Bruce won it.

This post picks up from there. The full story of what happened to that cymbal after the festival, the fails and the full build video is below.

The Blank

Every cymbal starts as a flat, raw disc of B20 bronze. No shape (unless the blank has a pressed bell, like this one for Bruce), no sound to shout about and nothing that hints at what it'll become. The work from here is entirely about coaxing that shape and sound out of the metal, one hammer strike at a time.

Hammering

This is where a cymbal actually gets its character. Every strike changes how the metal moves and how it will eventually sound, so there's no shortcut through this stage. Bruce's cymbal took longer than expected here. A few rounds of hammering done by festival goers did not sit right, so from when I started it was all about recovery - not that I knew it at the time.... Although that's fairly normal part of hand-hammering rather than a machine stamping out identical copies. Every piece pushes back differently.

Lathing

Once the hammering was "right", the cymbal went onto the lathe. This is where the surface gets shaped and refined, cutting grooves that affect both the look and the sound further. It's a slower, more controlled stage than hammering and it's where the cymbal starts looking like something recognisable. As you will see on the video, I had to do a few rounds of  lathing and hammering to get it to its finished stage!

Patina

For a finished look I introduced a liver-of-sulphur patina to the bell and edge, developing colour and character across the surface rather than staying a raw, uniform bronze. It's a finishing touch that makes each piece look genuinely one of a kind. - As well as engraving Bruce's name across the main body!

The Reveal

After hammering, lathing, patina and 100 attempts, Bruce's raffle cymbal became a finished, playable instrument. The full video shows the whole process end to end, from the first to the final strike.

Congratulations again to Bruce. I may have pulled out any hair I had left and in the end, I was saved by Bruce liking the raw/trashy sound! Enjoy the cymbal.

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Shop finished cymbals at Ashmore Cymbals.