Raising @museum.de

Raising. I have to admit, for outsiders like me, there's an air of magic about it. The processed sheet metal changes its entire shape, and it does that solely as a result of regular and closely spaced hammer blows. It bulges or forms hollows or twists, as if by a ghostly hand.

And the secret lies in the handling of the hammer, called a raising hammer. Look closely at the raising hammers on the wall. Look at their heads – they have a very special, slightly rounded shape.

Beating the metal with one of those hammers produces slight dents, so the metal is stretched at the point of impact. It grows thinner, and the material is pushed to the side. Now, if you apply the blows at a slight angle, you get more material on one side of the sheet than on the other, and the metal becomes rounded. If you beat the metal from both sides, the length of the sheet increases at a regular rate, and it remains straight. If you think that sounds unlikely -- watch the films, you won't believe your eyes.

But I can assure you of one thing: to achieve such a perfect rounded shape in just a few seconds takes the skill of an experienced craftsman who really knows his stuff!