What is a rolling mill?
Think of a rolling mill as a pasta maker, but for metal. It's a mill with steel rollers to alter the gauge of flat metal or wire, such as reducing thickness of metal or flattening wire. The press is small and allows jewelers
to use compression to reduce the thickness of metal sheet, roll
sheet from ingots, emboss metal with patterns,
or shape wire. Patterns can also be transferred
to metal in the mill. A drawplate is used to
change the shape, thickness, or profile of wire
by compression. Thick wire can be reduced
in thickness by pulling it through smaller and
smaller openings of the plate. As a result, the
wire thins as well as lengthens.
Rolling mills are useful for any jewelry project which requires sheets, including mokume gane as seen here.
For more inspiration, follow Jewelry Making Daily's Metalsmithing board on Pinterest.