as shown , an airfoil 20 , which may be part of a blade , vane or other item within a gas turbine engine , has a curved shape along a central area 22 and extending between a trailing edge 24 and a leading edge 26 . more generally , components may include blades , vanes , tangential outboard injectors , integrally bladed rotors , and impellers . in fact , teachings of this application may even extend to components that do not include an airfoil , but which do require some complex shaping . as can be appreciated from fig1 , the trailing edge 24 and the leading edge 26 are curved . fig2 a shows an electro - chemical machining process 126 schematically . as known , an electrolytic fluid 125 fills a chamber . this fluid may be driven through the chamber with forced or passive current streams . a preform or workpiece 120 , which is to form the airfoil 20 , is placed within the chamber . the workpiece 120 is formed of a conductive material , such as an appropriate metal . an end 122 is to form the leading edge while an end 124 is to form the trailing edge . an electrode 130 functions as a cathode . a voltage source 128 applies a charge between cathode 130 and the workpiece 120 , which functions as an anode . as known , material may be removed from the workpiece 120 by this process . once a general or intermediate shape of the final airfoil is achieved by the method of fig2 a , then a finish step , as shown in fig2 b , is performed . on the other hand , the initial work , as shown in fig2 a , to bring the workpiece 120 to the intermediate shape may be done by other processes beyond electro - chemical machining . as shown in fig2 b , in the finish process , shields 132 and 134 are placed on each side of the workpiece 120 . the end 122 , which is to form the leading edge 26 , is spaced between the shields 132 and 134 . a current , which passes between the cathode 130 and the workpiece 120 , is deflected around ends 136 and 138 of the shields 132 and 123 and , thus , concentrated at the end 122 of the workpiece 120 . in this manner , a curve leading edge 26 , such as shown in fig1 , is formed . while the method is shown as two separate steps , in practice , automation techniques may be utilized to have the two happen serially , without any significant down time between the two steps . a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that by controlling a distance w between the workpiece 120 and the shields 132 and 134 and a distance d between the end 122 and the cathode 130 , the extent and shape of the leading edge to be formed can be controlled . fig3 shows an alternative shield 140 , which is not placed parallel to a second shield . rather , it sits between the end of workpiece 120 and the electrode 130 . shield 140 has a slot or aperture 142 aligned with the end 122 of the workpiece 120 , which is to form the leading edge . with this embodiment , the current will again be concentrated at the end 122 to form a leading edge 26 . generically , the two embodiments could both be said to include the provision of a shield in a current distribution path to concentrate the current distribution on an end of a workpiece . the shields 132 , 134 and 140 are all formed of an appropriate material which is generally non - conductive . as an example , an insulator , such as a plastic , may be utilized . in the fig2 b embodiment , the shields 132 and 134 may be parallel . although an embodiment of this invention has been disclosed , a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this invention . for that reason , the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention .