Planishing @museum.de

When the sheet metal has been worked with various hammers, snips and other tools, you end up with all kinds of dents and bulges. That's quite obvious and also unavoidable. Those uneven areas are removed by planishing, or smoothing. If you're wondering how – you may not believe it, but with more hammering! And a great deal of skill and know-how! In no time at all, a dented piece of sheet metal is once again transformed into a smooth, shiny surface.

So "planishing" means "smoothing". And this smoothing not only works on flat sheet metal, but also on round and hollow shapes. To planish the workpiece on the inside, you need a flat base and a hammer with a dome-shaped head. To planish the outside of the workpiece, on the other hand, you use a hammer with a flat face and work on a domed base. And that's precisely the planishing process shown by the film for this stop.