Navajo Silversmiths | Page 5

taps of the hammer soon made the cone
even and shapely. Next, withdrawing the stake, he laid on the seam a

mixture of borax and minute clippings of silver moistened with saliva,
put the article into the fire, seam up, blew with the bellows until the
silver was at a dull red-heat, and then applied the blow-pipe and flame
until the soldering was completed. In the meantime the other smith had,
with hammer and file, wrought the handle until it was sufficiently
formed to be joined to the receptacle, the base of the handle being filed
down for a length of about a quarter of an inch so that it would fit
tightly into the orifice at the apex of the receptacle. The two parts were
then adjusted and bound firmly together with a fine wire passing in
various directions, over the base of the cone, across the protuberances
on the dart-shaped handle, and around both. This done, the parts were
soldered together in the manner already described, the ring by which it
is suspended was fastened on, the edge of the receptacle was clipped
and filed, and the whole was brought into good shape with file, sand,
emery-paper, &c.
[Illustration: PL. XIX. OBJECTS IN SILVER.]
The chasing was the next process. To make the round indentations on
the handle, one smith held the article on the anvil while the other
applied the point of the shank of a file--previously rounded--and struck
the file with a hammer. The other figures were made with the
sharpened point of a file, pushed forward with a zigzag motion of the
hand. When the chasing was done the silver was blanched by the
process before referred to, being occasionally taken from the boiling
solution of almogen to be rubbed with ashes and sand. For about five
hours both of the smiths worked together on this powder-charger;
subsequently, for about three hours' more, there was only one man
engaged on it; so that, in all, thirteen hours labor was spent in
constructing it. Of this time, about ten hours were consumed in forging,
about one and one-half hours in filing and rubbing, and about the same
time in ornamenting and cleaning.
In making the hollow silver beads they did not melt the silver, but beat
out a Mexican dollar until it was of the proper tenuity--frequently
annealing it in the forge as the work advanced. When the plate was
ready they carefully described on it, with an awl, a figure (which, by

courtesy, we will call a circle) that they conjectured would include a
disk large enough to make half a bead of the required size. The disk
was then cut out with scissors, trimmed, and used as a pattern to cut
other circular pieces by. One of the smiths proceeded to cut out the rest
of the planchets, while his partner formed them into hollow
hemispheres with his matrix and die. He did not put them at once into
the cavity from which they were to get their final shape, but first
worked them a little in one or more larger cavities, so as to bring them
gradually to the desired form. Next the hemispheres were leveled at the
edges by a method already described, and subsequently perforated by
holding them, convex surface downwards, on a piece of wood, and
driving through them the shank of a file with blows of a hammer. By
this means of boring, a neck was left projecting from the hole, which
was not filed off until the soldering was done. The hemispheres were
now strung or, I may say, spitted on a stout wire in pairs forming
globes. The wire or spit referred to was bent at one end and supplied
with a washer to keep the heads from slipping off, and all the pieces
being pressed closely together were secured in position by many wraps
of finer wire at the other end of the spit. The mixture of borax, saliva,
and silver was next applied to the seams of all the beads; they were put
into the fire and all soldered at one operation. When taken from the fire
they were finished by filing, polishing and blanching.
These Indians are quite fertile in design. In Pl. XIX are shown two
powder-chargers, which I consider very graceful in form. I have seen
many of these powder-chargers, all very graceful, but no two alike
except in cases where duplicates had been specially ordered. Their
designs upon bracelets and rings are of great variety. Ornaments for
bridles, consisting of broad bands of silver, sufficient in size and
number to almost entirely conceal the leather, are not particularly
handsome, but are greatly in demand among the Navajos and are
extensively manufactured by them. Leather belts studded with large
plates of silver are favorite