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 man