[TheForge] brass hand rail

[Ries Niemi]

One reason you would want to forge brass (bronze) hand rail is so you 
dont have to deal with the mismatched alloys you get when you mix pre 
made ends with a factory made handrail profile. Often it is hard to get 
them to match, as micheal wolfe just mentioned. If you forge it, you 
make everything from the same alloy, same batch.

Another reason to forge it is because while you can do a little to it 
cold, you cant really go to town like you can when it is hot. Tapers, 
scrolls, twists, radical surface texturing- you just cant get it to do 
that stuff cold. And when you get bronze in the right temp range, it is 
a real pleasure to forge- it moves so easily, and flows under the 
hammer.

385 is architectural bronze, though, and it doesnt forge for squat, 
because of the lead. Also doesnt tig weld. I have forged a little of 
it, and sometimes you are lucky, and then the next piece crumbles into 
cookie dough. If you are gonna forge it, I like either Naval Bronze, 
like 464, which has no lead- just copper, zinc and silicon, or Silicon 
Bronze, like a 655- just copper and silicon. I have heard of people 
forging Aluminum Bronzes as well.

If I was working with 385, I would plan on silver soldering. I think 
Alex Klahm has tricks to get the solder to be minimal, maybe even a 
color match.

Last year Russel Jacque and Jim Garrett did a really cool Silicon 
Bronze forged handrail for an expensive home on one of the islands- I 
saw some sample pieces in their shops this fall- it was gorgeous- and 
with material tapering from 1 1/2" to maybe 3/4" in cross section, 
forged in balls, and various other high level tricks, there is no way 
it could have been done cold.


ries