This is a page on hammering which serves two functions. First it defines some terms, and second it illustrates them with pictures. It is only just getting started but I wanted a place to start collecting things. It will also have some pictures of the tools which are involved, and illustrate hammering patterns used in different production eras. I'm actively revising the categories, names for things, and classifications. So expect that these will change. For example I really need to tidy up hammer size because it doesn't achieve the sorts of distinctions I'm looking for.
Image: Irregular Hammering
The above is a cymbal which shows Irregular Hammering. I'm using this term to describe hammering which doesn't have a particularly obvious regular pattern to it. In particular I'm contrasting it to a concentric ring pattern (see below). This is a modern K Custom and all machine hammered.
Irregular is about pattern or distribution. It is not a distinction about whether the hammer marks were made by somebody swinging a hammer, somebody holding a powered hammer in their hand, or somebody moving the cymbal blank under a machine hammer, or a computer doing all the work. It is about the pattern of the hammer marks.
Zildjian refer to their hammering on the K family as "random" in contrast to the A family hammering. I prefer the term "irregular" as a statistician, because we are picky about the technical definition of the word "random" and what it implies in terms of the underlying generating process. I also don't want to call it "unsystematic" or "haphazard" because it represents a carefully chosen pattern which creates the right cymbal sound. The key feature of this style of hammering is that it lacks any strong systematic pattern we can discern by eye. Irregular as a term comes from Pinksterboer, The Cymbal Book p113.
Image: Concentric Ring Hammering
The above is a modern Armand 16" crash cymbal which shows the concentric ring hammering style. I chose this picture because it has very easy to see rings, and we also know the hammering was done by machine. But concentric ring doesn't automatically imply machine. It's just about the pattern. Skilled craftsmen can produce concentric ring hammering style without the use of a machine which has some kind of guide or pin to follow. Where hammering is done without the use of some guide or pin, let's call it "freestyle". So hammering can be both concentric ring in pattern and freestyle (by eye) in targeting method.
There are other regular (vs irregular) hammering patterns possible, but the circular shape of a cymbal lends itself to concentric circles being the most obvious regular pattern. Another regular pattern which is used in cymbal construction is radial spoke. Look no further than a bicycle wheel and you see radial spokes.
The difference between radial spoke and concentric ring might be hard to pick after the fact, but in pure radial spoke hammering the hammer impressions will be further apart as you go out from the bell. Pure concentric ring will have the hammer impressions the same distance apart. It's a geometry thing. If you have a look at the Armand picture the hammer impressions are the same distance apart in an outer ring as an inner ring which is closer to the bell. The difference might not be so easy to pick if the hammer blows are being targeted by eye (freestyle).
In addition to spokes as straight lines, the spokes can be curved. For example, on this Z Custom Projection Crash. This is an example of another type of regular pattern.
So far I've introduced Pattern (regular versus irregular) and a few other hammering attributes which we'll elaborate on and fully illustrate in due course. The next is Targeting (freestyle or "by eye" versus some sort of mechanical aid or template or computer program). This isn't just a two state attribute. There are at least 4 different states to be coded. But I'm still working on the coding.
The rest of the descriptive attributes I'm trying out are:
It seems to me that lots of virtual ink has been expended on drum forums discussing "hand hammering" versus "machine hammering" versus "hand made" (what does that really mean?) before getting clear on just what the different aspects of hammering look like. Yes, the last 3 attributes of initial bow creation, bell, and force take us a bit past just describing what is visible to us in the finished cymbal, and get into the production process itself.
When it comes to understanding how hammering is used in the production process in cymbal manufacturing, and how these last 3 attributes can affect the sonic properties of a cymbal, I always defer to people who actually make cymbals for a living.
You can read up on what one of the independent cymbal makers (Craig Lauritsen) says:
Hammering 101 Cont.In some situations I'm going to avoid "hand versus machine" discussion by trying to work at the level of describing what we see on the surface of a finished cymbal, and not make "after the production process" inferences about whether somebody held a hammer in their hand or not. Later on I'll be showing examples and trying to illustrate the difference between machine force hammer and hand force hammer marks. And I'll show some examples where I can't tell and don't care how the blows were struck. But I hope to be able to describe and illustrate them adequately so that we can examine how strongly the look of the hammering is related to a particular stamp era and production era.
We begin not in the USA but back in Turkey, so we have a point of reference for what production technologies were like when Avedis started off in the USA.
Image: 30s: Turkish made K Zildjian Constantinople Bottom
In the 1930s K Zildjian were hammering cymbals like this in Turkey:
pattern: irregular
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, bell
depth: deep
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round or oval
initial shaping: hammering
bell: hammered
force: all hand
Image: 30s: Turkish made K Zildjian Constantinople Stamp
Image: 30s: Turkish made K Zildjian Constantinople Top
The hammering on the top isn't nearly as obvious. The lathing on both the top and the bottom show differences in the distance between the tonal grooves from place to place.
So what were the early Avedis Zildjian cymbals like?
Image: 30s: Avedis Zildjian Bottom 13" Hi Hat
In the 1930s A Zildjian were hammering cymbals in a similar way to their Turkish cousins.
pattern: irregular but heading towards concentric ring
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, no visible hammering on bell
depth: deep
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round or oval
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: all hand
The hammer blows on this cymbal are slightly further apart then the Turkish example. You can also see a contrast between the bell of the Avedis cymbal (pressed in using a die I believe) and the bell of the Turkish made K Zildjian which isn't as crisply formed.
Image: 30s: Avedis Zildjian Stamp 13" Hi Hat
Above is the stamp from this cymbal. It is a Second Stamp (if you choose to use that terminology). It also has the U.S. stamp on it which means U.S. Military issue.
Image: 30s: Avedis Zildjian Stamp 13" Hi Hats
Here is the top side of the hi hat pair. The hammering on the top isn't nearly as obvious as the hammering on the bottom. The lathing on both the top and the bottom show differences in the distance between the tonal grooves. Both of these had sustained major damage in the form of cracks at the bell bow transition which have been stop drilled at the ends of the cracks.
Image: Trans Stamp 16" Bottom Hammering
This 16" cymbal has concentric ring hammering on the top and bottom. Although the basic concentric ring pattern is clear on the bottom, the spacing between the hammer blows isn't consistent. The hammer marks overlap in a number of places. Not all Trans Stamps have this much hammering on them.
pattern: concentric ring
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: deep
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Image: Trans Stamp 18" Top Hammering
Top side of this 18" cymbal has visible hammering is, but not as strongly visible as on the underside. In this case you can still see concentric ring hammering, and it appears to be relatively sparse. There are larger gaps between the rings, and larger gaps between the adjacent hammer marks in each ring.
pattern: concentric ring
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Here is another 16" Trans Stamp (type II) which shows a hammering style which is quite different.
Image: Trans Stamp 16" 775g Bottom Hammering
This 16" cymbal seems to have more irregular than concentric ring hammering on the bottom. The hammer marks seem to be broader and overlap in many regions, although the marks are quite shallow. In some ways it looks more like this Canadian K in terms of hammering style.
pattern: irregular
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: oval
initial shaping: hand hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Image: Trans Stamp 16" 775g Top Hammering
The top might have slightly more concentric pattern to it, but it's hard to be sure. The lathing on the top wouldn't be out of place on a late 50s small stamp cymbal. It shows the finer lathing on the bell, and concentric rings of variable width lathing as you move along to bow from the bell to the outer edge.
Image: Trans Stamp 16" 775g Stamp
The next example is another 18" Trans Stamp (type III) which illustrates another variation on the Trans Stamp hammering theme.
Image: Trans Stamp 18" 1510g Bottom Hammering
This 18" cymbal seems to have clear concentric ring hammering on the bottom. But it is less deep, and doesn't overlap much.
pattern: concentric ring
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hand hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Image: Trans Stamp 18" 1510g Top Hammering
on the top of this cymbal we see concentric ring hammering, but with what seems to be a smaller hammer face than that used on the bottom. There are a few rings where the hammer marks are separated from one another half way out the bow.
Image: Trans Stamp 18" 1510g Stamp
so what have we learned? Trans Stamps have lots of variation in hammering style. There might be a correlation between which die stamp is on a cymbal and which style of hammering it has, but I haven't yet gone through all my reference gallery collecting the evidence and looking at the correlation. The correlation is unlikely to be perfect, and there might not be much chronology to be had in it.
Here is a picture from a Mechanix Illustrated article (August 1954) which shows the equipment used to hammer older Avedis cymbals. One interesting feature is that concentric ring hammering appears on the cymbal in the foreground. So here we see that somebody can hold a hammer in their hand and produce concentric ring hammering with targeting entirely by eye.
Image: Mid 1950s Hand Hammering at Avedis Zildjian
You can also see the metal anvil placed on a tree trunk, which is how it is still done today . There is also a second hammer and some tool I don't recognize kept handy on a second log. Why have a second hammer handy? Some cymbals have different sized hammer faces used on them. This was done back then in the 1950s and continues to this day (although I've cheated a little and chosen an example from Paiste on a modern machine hammered (human guided) Dark Energy cymbal. You can see three different sizes of round hammer marks:
Image: Three Different Hammer Face Sizes
Image: 1954 22" Hammering Top Side
And this example does seem to fit within the range of Trans Stamp styles.
pattern: concentric ring with significant irregular looking hammering as well
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round(variable)
initial shaping: hand hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Here is another example which shows significant hammering on the top and the bottom.
Image: Heavily Hammered Top Side 17" 1154g
The hammering on the top is very pronounced and it looks to be concentric ring but with
a significant degree of irregular hammering in there as well. I don't know
whether this represents the earliest Quincy Drop hammer style, or the last of the
hand held in the hammer style. Whatever the technique, it appears to be shared among
some Trans Stamps, 1954 Stamps, and some Large Stamps.
pattern: concentric ring with significant irregular hammering
Image: Heavily Hammered Bottom Side 17" 1154g
Image: Large Stamp 18" 1061g Bottom Hammering
This 18" cymbal has concentric ring hammering on the top and
bottom. Although the basic concentric ring pattern is there on the bottom,
the spacing between the hammer blows isn't consistent and the pattern has
a fair amount of irregular spacing in there.
pattern: concentric ring plus irregular spacing
There is so much going on in this hammering that I've annotated some features on
a quarter of the bottom hammering image (at a bigger scale).
Image: Large Stamp 18" 1061g Bottom Hammering Detail
There is an obvious ring of lathe chatter which some people mistake for hammering.
I've checked this phenomenon out with some cymbal makers and lathe users (thanks to Matt Nolan, and
Cliff DeArment) and there seems to be general agreement that it is lathe chatter.
In towards the bell from the lathe chatter ring there is a zone of medium round concentric ring hammering.
This style of hammering is also present just out from the ring of lathe chatter, and it is
seen in the lower left corner of the purple marked area of lathe chatter. Further out
towards the edge there are areas of more elongated hammer marks which I've marked as
"hand hammering work". I'm not really sure whether this is done with a hammer in somebody's
hand or done by somebody holding the blank under the Quincy drop hammer but without
any guide. But I'm content to say it looks more like some Trans Stamp hammering and
less like the small round concentric ring hammering characteristic of the post Large Stamp
periods.
Image: Large Stamp 18" 1061g Top Hammering
On the top side of this cymbal the hammering is still visible, but not as strongly
visible as on the underside. The stamp is the
Large Stamp without the 3 dots.
Image: Large Stamp 18" 1061g Stamp
The hammering in this 18" contrasts nicely with the hammering on this
22" Large Stamp Type I (Block Stamp).
Image: Large Stamp 22" Bottom Hammering
This 22" cymbal has small round concentric ring hammering on the
bottom. The look of the hammering is closer to the late 50s than the
18" Large Stamp. It has the late 50s style of smaller round hammer marks
which are more evenly separated.
pattern: concentric ring
Image: Large Stamp 22" Top Hammering
On the top side of this cymbal the hammering is still visible, but not as strongly. If
I only had a photo from the top you wouldn't be able to pick out the pattern. This is
why bottom photos are so important for studying hammering,
especially in the 60s and older cymbals.
Here is a second Large Stamp Hollow Block which looks more variable in the hammering,
in the same way that the 18" Large Stamp without the three dots did.
Image: Large Stamp 2590 22" Bottom Hammering
This 22" cymbal has small round concentric ring hammering on the inner
portion of the
bottom. But as you move outwards, the hammering changes to a larger
hammer face and looks more irregular in style. Not completely irregular, but
more than the inner portion.
pattern: concentric ring inner, more irregular outer
Image: Large Stamp 2590 22" Top Hammering
On the top side of this cymbal the hammering is visible, and you can
see the contrast between the inner part of the bow (small hammer face
concentric ring) and the outer part of the bow (medium hammer face concentric ring).
Once again if I only had the top photo to work with I wouldn't know about the
greater variation in hammering towards the outer portion on the underside. Working
from just a phohto of the top is working with a bit less than half of the story.
So there is variability in the Large Stamps which includes ones which look
like Trans Stamps in terms of hammering, and ones which look like later 1950s
cymbals in terms of hammering. Plus there are some which have hybrid
or mixed styles with some areas more concentric ring and some areas more
irregular.
Based on the examples in my reference collection,
this variation in hammering isn't correlated with the three different Large Stamp dies.
But I'll need to do a more careful analysis to see what statistical associations
there might be.
Image: late 50s 20" Ride 1980g Bottom Hammering
This 20" cymbal has concentric ring hammering on the top and
bottom.
pattern: concentric ring
Image: late 50s 20" Ride 1980g Top Hammering
It is easy enough to see small round concentric ring hammering on the bottom,
but it isn't as visible on the top. I've marked a few places where it is easier to spot.
In terms of lathing, this cymbal shows a pattern which is often (but not always)
shown on late 50s cymbals where the bell has finer lathing on at least part of it.
In addition there is a bit of lathe chatter in the area of the bell bow interface.
Again, this lathe chatter isn't exclusive to the late 1950s, but it happens in
cymbals with late 1950s stamps and production clues more frequently than it does
in other eras.
Image: late 50s 20" Ride 1980g Stamp
In addition to illustrating the 1950s small stamp on this cymbal, you
can also see an example of the variability in lathing. There is a band
which passes through the English portion of the stamp which has a different
style to the lathing above or below
that band.
This is also a late 50s cymbal, but the bottom hammering looks like
it is done with a tiny hammer face. You can see the more common hammer size
further in towards the bell. I don't know if this represents hammering done
at the factory, or afterwards. But I'm on the hunt for similar examples.
Image: late 50s 18" Tiny Hammering Example
Image: 1960s 24" Ride 2882g Bottom Hammering
This 24" cymbal has concentric ring hammering on the bottom but it
is subtle and hard to see. I've used a bigger image with
annotations to help. Hopefully once you spot the hammering in
the detail image, you will be able to go back to the full cymbal image
and spot more concentric circle rings.
Image: 1960s 24" Ride 2882g Bottom Hammering Detail
I've marked where there are three concentric circles of small hammer marks
heading up it an arc. It is quite possible that the hammer marks were
more visible (and larger) before the lathing took some of the surface
away.
pattern: concentric ring
Image: 1960s 24" Ride 2882g Top Hammering
It is very hard to pick out any hammering on the top of this cymbal. That
doesn't mean it isn't there. The lathing is variable in width, but not
as varied as the 1950s style lathing. The larger grooves go right
on on the bell.
Image: 1960s 24" Ride 2882g Stamp
This is the
early 1960s stamp
which measures out at around 1 3/16".
In the 1960s the hammer face being used can appear to be a bit
rectangular in shape, rather than a smooth oval. Here are a couple
of close ups which allow you to see the difference.
Image: Late 50s Round Bottom Hammering Detail
Image: Early 60s Rectangle Bottom Hammering Detail
Now just in case you are getting excited and thinking that round hammer face = 1950s
and rectangular hammer face = 1960s, here is a rectangular hammer face from the late 1950s.
Image: Late 50s Rectangle Bottom Hammering Detail
So whatever is happening it isn't pure chronology. Multiple hammering machines in the
factory plus multiple hammer faces to choose from leads to variation, but not
necessarily a way to date cymbals. And interestingly, these 3 cymbals were
purchased together new with a Ludwig kit in 1965.
So how do these concentric circle patterns get created? Here is a mid 1970s
catalog photo of a machine at work. If my machine terminology is
right, this is a reciprocal power hammer, which is the successor to the
earlier drop hammer. The cymbal is on a pin or shaft which goes through the
mounting hole, and then it is turned to create each ring. There is slight variation
between the hammer strokes because it is turned by hand and targeted by eye.
Image: 1970s Hammering Machine
Notice the cymbal is being hammered on the bottom.
According to Bill Hartrick's original timeline
hammering on the bottom dropped out in the later part of the 1960s.
It is possible that this
catalog photo is from a time before they quit hammering on the bottom. From a decade before
the catalog?
It is
possible that the photo is "staged"? If it was staged then somebody has put a lot of rings of
hammer
strokes on the bottom already
just for authenticity. Given the number of cymbals with bottom hammering
which seem to come with other 1970s attributes, the evidence
doesn't seem to support the theory that
hammering on the bottom stopped in the early 1960s.
The following 19" cymbal has 1960s looking concentric ring hammering on the top and
bottom.
I haven't examined a large sample of 1970s cymbals (maybe 40) but based
on what I've seen there might be bottom hammering on 5% or so.
Image: 19" Mini Cup Ride 2324g Top Hammering
pattern: concentric ring
Image: 19" Mini Cup Ride 2324g Bottom Hammering
It is easy enough to see the abundant concentric ring hammering on the bottom.
Yet the stamp on this cymbal is a
1970s stamp:
Image: 19" Mini Cup Ride 2324g Stamp
It isn't the best stamp picture in in the world in terms of focus, but it is
enough to demonstrate that it has the appropriate vertical alignment and lack of
bold ZILDJIAN which are diagnostic of a
1970s stamp. So this might be
a cymbal which was produced in the early 1960s and not die stamped until the 1970s.
That sort of delay (8 years or so) is consistent with the explanation for how
some cymbals with Trans Stamp style hammering or Large Stamp style hammering
have a 1960s stamp. Or it is possible that some cymbals continued to be hammered
on the bottom in the early
1960s style well into the 1970s. Either way, it is no longer safe
to look for the presence of bottom hammering in isolation. I've shown a 1970s
cymbal with visible hammering top and bottom, and a 1960s cymbal with no visible
top hammering, and barely visible bottom hammering. This is a cautionary tale
of just how variable hammering can be. Some cymbal have lots of visible hammering,
some have no visible hammering, even when they are from the same era. This
means that judging different eras from the visible hammering alone is not
that reliable. The die stamp does not always line up perfectly with the
production clues like hammering and lathing.
Next we have another 1970s cymbal which shows lots of bottom hammering, but has a 1970s hollow
ink Zildjian on it.
Image: 1970s Bottom Hammering
There is lots of visible hammering on the bottom side, along with a hollow ink Zildjian
logo which is just visible (upside down) at 11 o'clock.
The hammering is easier to see in this enlargement. I see rectangular hammer
face in here rather than just oval. Rectangular hammer face harks back to the mid 1950s
(coming back to document this if it checks out properly)
Image: 1970s Bottom Hammering Detail
pattern: concentric ring
The rectangular hammer face can be hard to spot. If it is pressed in firmly, the
rectangular hammer can cause the sloping edges to appear more rounded than squared off.
If the rectangular hammer face is pressed in lightly then there is only a hint of
linear shape. Here is the bottom of a third 1970s hollow ink Zildjian cymbal which
shows subtle bottom hammering with a rectangular face in three concentric rings. I've annotated
3 hammer marks in the middle ring, and one in each of the other two rings.
Image: 1970s Rectangular Hammer Face
When I first encountered this example I thought it might be
lathe chatter (ref coming)
since there
wasn't supposed to be bottom hammering. But now that I've collected enough examples,
I have seen it as very lightly pressed in rectangular hammer face on the cymbal bottom.
So once again the hollow ink Zildjian on this cymbal doesn't fit with hammering on the bottom
in the simple "1970s = no bottom hammering" scenario. It might be that this cymbal was
hammered and lathed in the 1960s and given the hollow Zildjian ink stamp just before
it was shipped out some time in the 1970s.
The take home message is: ink, hammering, lathing, and die stamps all vary
independently.
They are not perfectly correlated.
Image: 60s-70s 15" K Zildjian 1370g Bottom Hammering
This 15" cymbal
pattern: irregular
Image: 60s-70s 15" K Zildjian 1370g Top Hammering
It is easy to see the irregular hammering on the top of this cymbal.
The lathing is a little variable in width, but not
remarkably different from the lathing on the American cousins of the day.
The larger grooves go right
up on the bell. There isn't any particularly obvious hammering on the
bell but that might just be this particular cymbal and these
particular photos.
Image: 60s-70s 15" K Zildjian 1370g New Stamp
This is the final Turkish K Zildjian stamp before production moved
first to Canada, and later to the USA.
Image: 70s: 22" Heavy Ride 3870g Top Hammering
There is visible hammering on the top side, along with two ink stamps
in two different fonts for good measure. The hammering and the ink stamps
are easier to see in this enlargement.
Image: 70s: 22" Heavy Ride 3870g Top Detail
pattern: concentric ring
Image: 70s: 22" Heavy Ride 3870g Bottom Hammering
The bottom doesn't show any visible hammering, but it does show the
Zildjian hollow ink logo. It also has fingerprints (and associated grease and oil
buildup) on the bottom which might look like very shallow hammering to
the uninitiated. It is just grime, and there is no sign of hammering even
in the original photo which is twice the size.
The lathing in the 70s tends to be more consistent in terms of the size of the tonal
grooves. At least that's the stereotype. Once again this cymbal has variation and noticeable
bands on the bottom. The same larger tonal groove lathing extends up the bell on the top and the bottom
(inside of bell).
Image: 80s: 21" Rock Ride 3175g Top Hammering
In the 1980s there isn't much visible hamming on either the top or the
bottom.
This doesn't mean they aren't hammered. Just that it tends to not be very visible.
pattern: concentric ring
Image: 80s: 21" Rock Ride 3175g Bottom Hammering
The lathing in the 80s tends to be consistent in terms of the size of the tonal
grooves. The same larger tonal groove lathing extends up the bell on the top and the bottom
(inside of bell). But the contrast between the 1970s lathing and the 1980s lathing
isn't great.
The Avedis Zildjian company took over the Turkish K Zildjian trademarks, and
began producing K Ziljdian cymbals in Canada late in the 1970s. These were not produced
exactly the same way the Turkish ones were, but they are still quite
different in terms of hammering from the Avedis line. The Canadian Ks have
a stamp which seems to progress naturally from the Turkish K Zildjian New Stamp.
They kept much of the top portion as is, and added the Genuine Turkish Cymbals (in a curve)
from the Avedis stamps. No country of origin is shown on this example, but other cymbals
have a MADE IN CANADA on them. The presence/absence of the MADE IN CANADA isn't unique
to Canadian Ks. It is also known from the
Canadian Avedis line.
Image: Canadian K 18" 1590g Stamp
Image: Canadian K 18" 1590g Top Hammering
pattern: irregular
Image: Canadian K 18" 1590g Bottom Hammering
When production moved to the USA the die stamp changed, the ink changed, and so did the lathing and
some other production details. There isn't a single consensus year for the move to the USA,
but it is most likely 1981±2. The usual uncertainty applies because personal recollections,
advertising material, catalogs, etc. don't all line up perfectly.
Image: Early American K 18" 1580g Stamp
Image: Early American K 18" 1580g Top Hammering
Image: Early American K 18" 1580g Bottom Hammering
pattern: irregular
pattern: irregular
Image: Laser Stamp 18" Ride Bottom
Image: Laser Stamp 18" Ride Top
pattern: concentric circle
Image: Laser Stamp 18" Ride Ink
or back to the introduction page
text stabilized 17 Feb 2016 9:27 AM
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hand hammering? Quincy drop?
bell: pressed in
force: hand
Large Stamps: mid 1950s to later 1950s
First up is a Large Stamp which looks like it has Trans Stamp hammering to me. The
Large Stamps are supposed to be the first Avedis cymbals which have the Qiuncy Drop Hammer
used on them.
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: deep
hammer size: small
hammer shape: round, but some oval and elongated
initial shaping: hammering? Quincy drop hammer?
bell: pressed in
force: hand
targeting: uncertain
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: small
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand
targeting: uncertain
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: small inner, larger outer
hammer shape: round inner, more oval outer
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand? machine?
Later 1950s Style Hammering
targeting: machine assisted? little placement variations visible
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: small
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: quincy drop hammer
bell: pressed in
force: machine, some hand?
1960s Style Hammering
targeting: machine assisted?
location: top (hard to see if there is), bottom, not on bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: small
hammer shape: round?
initial shaping: quincy drop hammer?
bell: pressed in
force: machine?
However, this distinction is not as black and white as he suggested.
Some
cymbals with a 1970s stamp don't have visible hammering on the bottom,
but others do.
targeting: machine assisted
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: medium
hammer size: small
hammer shape: rectangular
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing?
bell: pressed in
force: all machine
targeting: machine assisted
location: top, not on bottom or bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: rectangle
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: all machine
Turkish made K Zildjian New Stamps
We've seen what's happening in the USA in terms of hammering, but before
we moving on it is worth contrasting this with what was going
on back in Turkey. Partly this is because when we get to the 1980s
Avedis are producing K Zildjians in the USA and we will be making comparisons
with those as well. In the later 1960s and early 1970s, Turkish made K Zildjians
were looking like this:
targeting: eye
location: top, bottom, bell
depth: deep
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hammering
bell: pressed in
force: hand and maybe some power hammer
1970s Style Hammering
We've already seem a cymbal with a 1970s stamp but 1960s hammering style. Here is
a cymbal which fits more into the 1970s stereotype for hammering.
targeting: machine assisted
location: top, not on bottom or bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: all machine
1980s Style Hammering and Lathing
targeting: machine assisted
location: top, not on bottom or bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: all machine
North American K Zildjians: 1978±2 into the 1980s
targeting: machine assisted and some by eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell?
depth: medium
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: unsure about Quincy drop hammer
bell: pressed in
force: some machine some hand
targeting: machine assisted and some by eye
location: top, bottom, not on bell?
depth: medium
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: unsure about initial hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: mostly machine, with some hand work
The K Customs
Image: Golf Ball Hammering Example
targeting: computer
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: deep
hammer size: golf ball
hammer shape: round
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: machine
Laser Stamps: 1994 onwards
Bottom hammering may have not appeared on some 1970s or 1980s Avedis cymbals,
but it didn't go away forever. Here it is on a cymbal from somewhere in the
years 1997-2002 (based on the position of the Laser serial number). But the hammering
on this cymbal would not look out of place in the 1960s.
targeting: computer
location: top, bottom, not on bell
depth: shallow
hammer size: medium
hammer shape: rectangle
initial shaping: hydraulic pressing
bell: pressed in
force: machine
text last updated 3 Nov 2016 7:16 PM
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