Sculpting metal with high explosives

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By Sean Michael Ragan
Posted 2009/08/17 @ 9:35 am
Category Art & Design, Makers, Science

In 1985, American artist Evelyn Rosenberg developed a technique for embossing thick metal plates by blasting them onto a mold with sheets of plastic explosive. “Detonography,” as she calls it, can impress very delicate images into metal surfaces, and can weld dissimilar metals together into single panels. Shown above is “Pillars of Knowledge,” featuring four detonographs treated with various chemicals to produce different patinas.

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7 Responses to Sculpting metal with high explosives

DU on August 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am said:

I thought the Mythbusters disproved that. Ah well.

Or maybe her “welding” is actually just attaching them together with all the crevices interlocked.

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anachrocomputer on August 18th, 2009 at 9:35 am said:

This is a technique that is used in industry to join dissimilar metals together. I’ve heard of it being used to make a piece of metal that is steel on one side and stainless steel on the other. The steel side is then welded (conventionally) to a steel ship’s deck, and the stainless side can then be welded to a stainless steel superstructure or deck fitting.

There’s a note about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding

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- Bob D on August 18th, 2009 at 10:55 am said:
  
  Actually they do this for steel to aluminum in the Navy for boat hulls and the like. It’s also very common to see aluminum explosively welded to copper for wiring installations that use aluminum wire in the walls.
  
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Stunmmonkey on August 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am said:

Nope. No myth. In fact, it has been done for many years.

While this may have been the first artist to play with the technique and develop it for these purposes, it has been standard practice in advanced demolitions training for a long time. It is common practice to spell out words and simple stuff like that as exercises in understanding concepts and to show proficiency.

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Fred on August 18th, 2009 at 1:01 pm said:

Look at the quarters in your pocket with their copper cores and copper nickel alloy cladding. This is how they are made.

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OMG on August 19th, 2009 at 2:47 am said:

Yard sale quality aesthetics….

I will call it level F art.

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Scott Langill on August 22nd, 2009 at 6:59 pm said:

Charles E. Munroe made images like these using guncotton and metal plates along with lace, ferns, and coins in 1888.

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