brass forging

[Mike Davis]

i have a damascus blade,a sambar stag handle and i was gonna make a guard out of brass but i cant make the guard i want out of the material i have. i want to make a semi ring guard. my question is can brass be forged?
if not ill try to do it out of steel but i would prefer brass
please help

 

[B Finnigan]

You can forge brass cold if you heat it up to red heat and then quench it (water). The quenching will anneal or soften it. If you don't anneal it it will try to crack on you. I just finished up cold hammering some copper cones for a hawk. It is kinda cool not having to heat and re-heat, just hammer until it gets to the shape you want. If there is alot of hammering to do you will have to re-quench it a few times. It is almost the complete reverse of steel forging.

Show us pics when you get it done.

 

[Mike Davis]

thanks i would have screwed that up completely.ill definately post pics

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Make sure you have a forgable brass.Minimum 60% Copper and the rest mostly Zinc.70/30 is forging brass.Avoid silicon brass.

 

[mete]

No need to quench it to anneal unless you have one of the few precipitaion hardening types. 70/30 brass is cartridge brass , the most ductile of the brasses. Annealing starts at about 450 F.Silicon bronze can be worked [hammered & annealed] too but it's tough stuff.