Metalwork Merit Badge

Pick your option before you do requirement 1

This is the one thing to take away from this page.

Requirement 1: "…Discuss with your counselor the additional safety rules that apply to the metalwork option you choose for requirement 5."

Requirement 5, "After completing the first four requirements, complete ONE of the following options:"

Requirement 1 needs the option chosen. Requirement 5 needs requirements 1 to 4 completed. Those are different things, so this is not a deadlock, but it does mean the badge cannot be worked in the order it is printed.

The real order is:

1. Choose your option (requirement 5's A, B, C or D).
2. Requirements 1 to 4, with requirement 1's safety discussion now able to cover the option you picked.
3. The option itself. A Scout working strictly top to bottom will book a safety discussion for an option they have not chosen, and will have to book a second one.

The four options are not four equal afternoons

Option D is twice the size of any other and is the only one that needs a forge. If you have access to one, it is the most substantial thing on this badge; if you do not, that decides the question for you.

The Silversmith option is worked in copper

Requirement 5(B)(3) asks for two objects made from 18- or 20-gauge sheet copper. Sterling silver, nickel silver or lead-free pewter may be substituted "if you have prior silversmithing experience", so the substitution is a concession to experience, not a default.

Option B is named for a trade, not for a metal. Nobody needs to buy silver.

Requirement 3 is one piece of metal, twice

Requirement 3(a) work-hardens a piece of sheet brass or copper with a 45-degree bend and heavy peening. Requirement 3(b) then anneals that same piece. The requirement says "the work-hardened piece from requirement 3(a)", and asks you to note the difference in effort.

The whole point is the comparison, so do not throw the first piece away, and do both parts with the same metal. This is the only step on this badge where the dependency is a physical object rather than a piece of knowledge.

Your counselor approves the patterns, and in one case the start

• Options A, B and C all use patterns *"either provided by your counselor or made by you and approved by your counselor."*
• Option D goes further: requirement 5(D)(4) says *"Be sure you have your counselor's approval before you begin."*
• Option C adds a flat instruction: **do not use copyrighted materials as patterns.**

What this page is

The Metalwork merit badge, drawn in the order the requirements actually imply rather than the order they are numbered. It is not a copy of the requirements, and in particular it does not reproduce the safety rules requirement 1 tells you to read: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.