Order medals to encourage winners of local competitions and competitions or as a souvenir gift to relatives and friends is becoming an increasingly popular affair. You can get a medal yourself at home. Such an unusual gift made by one’s own hands will surely bring joy to the person being presented.
You will need
Copper sheet, metal scissors, measuring compass, grinder, sandpaper, polishing paste, cloth or sponge for washing dishes, photo paper, iron, napkin, etching solution, varnish, acetone, cotton buds, a container of water, wire.
Instruction manual
1
Scissor cut a copper circle.
2
Sand the obverse, reverse, and edge of the workpiece.
3
Using a sponge or cloth, apply polishing paste to the surface of the disc in order to eliminate minor scratches remaining after grinding from the surface of the disc.
4
Print on a photo paper a sketch prepared in advance (a portrait of the person you are giving, the inscriptions — what you want to see on the obverse and reverse of the finished product) in accordance with the expected size of the medal you receive. On the back of the printed image, mark the top of the image.
5
Put the medal on a napkin. From above place the cut-out sketch with a drawing to a blank. Heated to maximum iron, press the entire figure for 15-20 seconds. Then carefully iron the entire pattern. The quality of applying the image to the medal blank depends on this stage.
6
Prepare the etch blank. To do this, carefully, so as not to remove the toner layer, remove paper from its surface. Paper is better removed if it is pre-soaked. In areas where paper sticks particularly tightly, use cotton buds or a sharpened match. Cover the remaining open pores with varnish.
7
Fasten the medal in a wire loop and place this structure in the etching solution for 60 minutes.
eight
Carry out the final finishing work: remove the toner with a cotton wool with acetone, sand the product with an emery cloth, give a matte gloss to the polishing paste.
note
When cutting a copper sheet, the edges will be uneven. Therefore, leave a couple of millimeters of margin to achieve perfect evenness with a subsequent split of the edge.
Helpful advice
To translate a sketch, you can use matte, glossy or coated paper. The main thing is to ensure that the supergloss does not stick to the workpiece.
