[TheForge] Blacksmithing

[James Binnion]

On Mar 16, 2011, at 1:37 PM, Andrew Vida wrote:
> 
> 	Uranium is a toxic heavy metal.  Metals such as it and Plutonium would 
> be hazardous even were they not radioactive.

As far as heavy metals go uranium is not as toxic as mercury or cadmium but there is that little problem of the radioactivity. Plutonium is in a way different class that stuff is very toxic.

> 
> 	Forge uranium?  Not likely.  It is pyrophoric.  If you got that thing 
> burning, you'd be wishing you hadn't.

According to the literature it is hot worked but the heavy oxide formation makes the surface finish poor. Just because it is pyrophoric does not mean you can't hot work it. Titanium and zirconium are pyrophoric and I have been doing a lot of hot work on them the past 4 years. Titanium is really hard to get going but zirconium is just about impossible to machine dry without setting the swarf on fire. But I have not been able to light either Ti or Zr off by using a torch or gas forge for heating to forging temperature.

>  The buttons from which parts of 
> the detonators are made have to have the oxides removed after they are 
> cast.  At least part of the operation is done with hand scrapers.  It is 
> good fun to watch the sparks flying off as the scraping is done.

It is this type of action that is most likely to ignite these pyrophoric metals. They are poor thermal conductors the heat of cutting and the freshly exposed un-oxidized metal can go into very rapid oxidation (burn)

James Binnion
jbin at well.com