Copper Tanto?

J.Marsillo

J.Marsillo

Joined
Nov 8, 2000
Messages
1,255
I have a friend of mine that wants me to make him a copper Tanto.

Is there a certain type of copper that wont be too soft? I have some bar stock in the shop but it seems to be a little flimsy for even a letter opener...Can i cold forge it and work harden it? Not that he intends to use this for anything but letters...We are clear on that...lol
 
Pure copper will be fairly soft even when work hardened. But there are alloys that still have a red color [if that's what he wants] and will be harder . Phosphur bronze is often used for springs so it's reasonably hard with a red color. Other than a red color you could use silicon bronze or the old tin bronze of the ancients used for things like swords ! These were usually cast but the edges were work hardened often.
 
Get some ferric chloride, toss in a bunch of copper pennies and then etch a steel blade in it. It will give it a copper tint.
 
I'm going to try that tonight... except instead of using pennies I'll use some copper pipe pieces. If I remember to get some before pictures, I'll show images of the results.
 
Steinerj said:
Get some ferric chloride, toss in a bunch of copper pennies and then etch a steel blade in it. It will give it a copper tint.
Click to expand...

Just remember that this will forever taint your Ferric Chloride, so mix up a batch separate from what you use to etch your Damascus! :)

-d
 
Steinerj said:
Get some ferric chloride, toss in a bunch of copper pennies and then etch a steel blade in it. It will give it a copper tint.
Click to expand...

I ended up doing this on accident. I had cleaned up some copper in my etching solution and etched a new blade a few days later in the same solution. It does work however the finish comes off very easily. I left it on because it looked cool and the customer liked it. The problem was a couple of weeks later he used it on a camping trip and returned it back to me to fix the finish. Most of it had been rubbed off and i ended up taking the rest off. A real pain after the fact. Unless someone knows how to seal it so the finish will not come off i wouldn't recommend it. Unless it's going to be a show piece only. Just my opinion.
 
Copper sulphate will put a thin wash of copper on steel everywhere but where fire scale is. I use this on my forged knives to get some color sometimes.
Just ensure you neutralize the copper sulphate on the knife afterwords w baking soda and water or else you will get rust.
Cw
 
I tried it tonight. it put a thin wash on the piece of steel... a thin wash that rubbed right off. Oh well. Maybe plumbing copper is different from penny copper.
 
Phosphur bronze it is! Thanks for the insight guys :thumbup:
All he really wants is the copper hue,He was asking about red brass but iirc that has a decent amount of lead in it...

I should have asked in my first post but is there a good source for Tanto size proportions and construction? I've never even peeked into the Japanese styles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top