[TheForge] Metal working problem...again

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Keziah's Forge wrote:
> Wood end grain - even pine - is far too hard for brass, bronze, copper etc. 
> You can even put a fabric pattern in brass by lining your end grain with it. 
So i've found. But softer material just isn't stiff enough to do the 
job. By spot heating and working over voids in the wood i minimize the 
mushing, but not enough. The pieces are over 1/4" thick in places and 
not very long or wide. There's a lot of relief both in the embossing and 
in the shaping later.
> You need something wit minimal or no texture tat is much softer than the 
> metal and much wider than the hammer face:  like a leather sand bag, 
> sorbathane (high density urethane) pad or several layers of lead sheet.  You 
> also need to aneal the metal to dead soft before the final working: heat to 
> dull red and water quench.
I don't think this alloy is forgiving enough to get away with the amount 
of forming i want to do any way other than hot. That'd probably work 
with silicon bronze though.
   A little boric acid (pickle) in the quench will
> clean it as well.  Then the final doming will work harden it back to just 
> about right so that it doesn't bend from normal use.
That works well for the finger cymbals i make, but..
I'm often doing more complex shaping than doming on these....and the 
stresses are greater..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 4:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Metal working problem...again
> 
> 
>>> Hello all;
>>> This is a problem that i keep running into, brought it up before, thought 
>>> i'd try again.
>>> I have a batch of small pieces,mostly bronze, belt buckles and openers 
>>> mostly, that are in the "road kill" stage
>> where they are all cut and shaped and i've worked over one side
>> thoroughly with my treadle hammer and assorted tooling..so they are
>> pretty detailed.
>>> Next, i need to give them some 3D shape, depth and form.
>> I heat up small areas, place them face down on wood ( green pine end
>> grain) and strike them on the back side.
>>> That works fine, except for 1 thing...the crisply embossed front sides 
>>> get squashed, mashed, mushed and smeared. It's frustrating.
>>> I'd appreciate any (um, constructive) suggestions.  pete f
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