Step 4: first course of hammering

On most of my pieces, especially the larger ones, the first course is the WORST course. The sheet copper wants to stay a flat sheet with all it's molecules lined up from the milling process. It often feels like the only thing I get done the first time around is to beat the metal up. I like to think I'm waking the copper up in this stage since after this it becomes much more agreeable to developing its new form. This first course is just a fight!