[TheForge] Forging Chrome plated bumpers

[Dave Bendall]

     There's a shop here in Phx. that has piles of old chrome bumpers,
too, that's always gotten me wondering about forging them. My questions
are, assuming there's a safe way to forge this stuff, would the chrome
stay on after forging? Like, after you mangled it into whatever, could
you re-polish it to chrome-y brightness? Also, would it be possible to
forge weld up a billet of chrome bumper pieces for damascus purposes?
Seems like chrome layers would be pretty neat looking. Anyone ever
tried? I've always understood that chrome plated stuff was dangerous to
forge because of the acid bath if goes through in the plating process.
Heating  it causes the acid to come out in fumes. For that matter, ANY
smoke or fumes have got to be bad for you to some degree or other.
     Dave Bendall in Phoenix