[TheForge] Bronze

[Ries Niemi]

Everdure is a trade name for Silicon Bronze, which is C655.
Its mostly Copper, with a tiny bit of silicon in it.
I think its the best bronze to start with- it forges nicely, can be tig 
welded, and is available in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Here are some places to get it:
http://www.alaskancopper.com/
http://www.copperandbrass.com/public/division/project/html/home.html
http://www.atlasmetal.com/
http://www.farmers-copper.com/

Learning to get it hot enough, but not too hot, is the hardest thing to 
learn- too cold, you get cracking.
But too hot, and all of a sudden, you got nothing but a puddle.
I tend to turn the lights down, and look for the slightest red glow, in 
the dark. Not a bright enough red to be even visible in sunlight.
In normal shop light, I will forge it in the purple and browns- well 
below when it starts to get dull red in full light.

Its fun to forge, moves pretty easily.
The biggest drawback to Silicon Bronze is the dark brownish red color 
when cold- it doesnt have that Yellowy, "Bronze" color.
For that, I use Naval Bronze, which is C465- It has a bit of lead in 
it, and some zinc, both of which make it trickier to forge, and much 
tougher to weld. But the forgeablity is good, and the color is 
beautiful.

Be forewarned- none of this stuff is cheap- copper has gone up a lot 
this year, and in addition to the per pound price of the base alloys, 
you get charged more for certain profiles- round bar is bad enough, but 
try pricing square bar or flat bar or angle, if you want to really 
punish yourself.

ries





On Jun 8, 2006, at 10:03 AM, roger olsen wrote:

>
>
>
>> everdure is considered the best bronze for forging and I would think 
>> if you
>> googled 'forging everdure'  you would get some good feedback.  
>> Actually I am
>> not positive everdure has an E on the end but I think so.
>>
>> Anvilfire may also have some instructions about forging bronze.
>>
>> I have forged it and the smaller the stock the more frustrating.  I 
>> did not
>> find it as easy to forge as copper but it is definitely doable.   You 
>> will
>> need to experiment but the learning curve will start out very steep.  
>> You do
>> not want to bring it up where it shows color, just below that as I 
>> recall,
>> keep your forge turned low,  too hot or too cold and it will break 
>> like a
>> stale oatmeal cookie.  Try rubbing the stock with a block of wood at
>> different temp and note when it feels greasy and note the type and 
>> quantity
>> of smoke it creates and try forging.  The hardest part is finding the
>> 'window' of not to hot, not to cold.
>>
>> Good luck
>>
>> Roger Olsen
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "robert hensarling" 
>> <rhrocker at hilconet.com>
>> To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:49 AM
>> Subject: [TheForge] Bronze
>>
>>
>>> I'm wanting to try my hand at forging a little bronze.  I'm going to 
>>> buy
>>> just a little (one sq. foot) of 1/16th" and also some bronze rod for
>>> vines,
>>> probably just 3/8's".
>>>
>>> Could anyone please tell me the class (220, etc) for the sheet and 
>>> rod?
>>> This is my first venture and would like to get the numbers right.  I
>>> already
>>> have Silicon Bronze rods for my tig (don't know if it can be forge 
>>> welded,
>>> but if it can, I'm more than positive that I couldn't do it very 
>>> well).
>>>
>>> Seems that someone once said to use a outfit in Denver for the stuff,
>>> Atlas
>>> Metal I think.
>>>
>>>
>
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com