[TheForge] Candle cups

[Washington, Aubrey O.]

Ries,
That's pretty much what I had gathered.
 
Aubrey
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From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of Ries Niemi
Sent: Tue 1/10/2006 4:24 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Candle cups




On Jan 10, 2006, at 1:36 PM, Washington, Aubrey O. wrote:

> What alloy is the brass tubing and rod you can find at the hardware
> store?  Can it be forged?
>

Brass/ Bronze/ Copper is a very complicated subject. Most people start
out assuming there is "brass" , "copper" and "bronze".
Well, copper is an element. So pure copper is pretty much always the
same.
But all the stuff called brass or bronze is any of a hundred or more
alloys. Each with slightly different recipes, making each good for some
things, and bad for others.
Color is no guide- there are bright yellow alloys with lead, with no
lead, with zinc, with no zinc, and with all kinds of other things as
well.
Most hardware store brass is really crummy for forging, except for the
leaded kind, which is pretty much impossible to forge.
Bronzes can be really fun to forge, like silicon or naval bronze, or
frustrating beyond belief- like "architectural " bronze, for example,
which crumbles like cookie dough.

Trial and error will work, but it really is nice to know what you have,
which means buying it new, at prices from $3 to $5 a pound.  I know-
thats a lot of money. But if your "free" material is a puddle on the
floor of your forge, its not much of a saving.

And to make matters worse, some alloys are only available in sheet,
others in round bar but not flat or square, pipe or tube is available
in some but not others.
Silicon bronze, for example, is tough to find in anything but sheet and
round bar.

There aint no free lunch, and there is no miracle red metal solution- I
have bits and pieces of at least 4 alloys in the shop.

Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com

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