[TheForge] Bronze

[James Binnion]

On Aug 4, 2010, at 7:52 PM, Kim George wrote:

>  You should also quench it
> about every third time. Re member when you do that you are annealing
> the piece.All nonferrous metals are like that.

This is not right. Annealing of any metal or alloy comes from heating  
it past the point of stress relief and into the recrystallization  
temperature range. Where that temperature range is depends on the  
physical properties of the alloy or metal and how much cold work you  
have put into it, the more cold work the lower the temperature. Not  
enough cold work and you will not be able to anneal it. If you are hot  
forging the work and do not put any cold work into it you cannot  
anneal it, you can heat it to the point of crystal growth (which is  
generally a bad thing) but you will not get recrystallization.

Some alloys care about how you cool them after annealing and some  
don't. Some need a rapid quench some need a slow cooling and with some  
it just don't matter. Non ferrous metals vary in what is needed just  
as ferrous ones do. If in doubt look it up, the internet is full of  
alloy data sheets that have hot work temperatures, annealing  
temperatures and other useful info.



James Binnion
jbin at well.com