- Joined
- Nov 9, 1999
- Messages
- 1,137
I found a bar of...something under the shop a while back. It's heavy and slightly yellowish. I'll assume it's brass. I was trying to beat it around a odd shaped, roughly 1/2" rod today as a sort of collar. After cutting off a piece I drilled a 1/2" hole, slid it on the rod, heated it up with the acetylene torch and began hammerin'. I figured it would snug up to the rod and a little cold working should make it good and tight. Well when it cooled a bit it just crumbled under the hammer. Any idea why?
It's strange for brass. It's a very light yellow. Almost unnoticablly so. It's brittle too. Drilled, it flakes off instead of peeling off in those little curly bits you get when drilling soft metals. Even after annealing. The only other time I've had a metal crumble like that was when I tried to forge a blade out of a piece of bronze that Richard Rosvall gave me (anyone know where he is BTW?). Could it be a bronze? Also, I seem to recall hearing that heating brass and bronze with acetylene causes some kind of problems. I don't suppose crumbling is one of those? Richard always used propane and it seemed to work fine for him. Any clues?
It's strange for brass. It's a very light yellow. Almost unnoticablly so. It's brittle too. Drilled, it flakes off instead of peeling off in those little curly bits you get when drilling soft metals. Even after annealing. The only other time I've had a metal crumble like that was when I tried to forge a blade out of a piece of bronze that Richard Rosvall gave me (anyone know where he is BTW?). Could it be a bronze? Also, I seem to recall hearing that heating brass and bronze with acetylene causes some kind of problems. I don't suppose crumbling is one of those? Richard always used propane and it seemed to work fine for him. Any clues?