Forging bronze: Tell me all about it

I haven't forged bronze, but i have forged my mokume which is made out of copper and nickel silver. They are all copper alloys, so i don't suppose they would be much different.

Just watch your heat so you don't melt the bronze. I wouldn't go much hotter than bright cherry red. I have taken my mokume to orange when twisting, but much past that it melts. I think the melting temp of bronze is less than copper so you should be ok with cherry red or bright cherry.

It feels alot softer under the hammer than steel does, so you might have to lighten up on your hammer blows until you get the feel for how fast it moves. You can also forge it when it cools down to black, but it will start to work harden then, but it will be back to soft on you next heat.

Hope that helps.
 
Bronze will anneal by heating it up to cherry and then quenching it in water but it will work harden fairly fast. I've had better luck forging it hot. I wouldn't worry about melting it. Think it needs to get really hot for that although there's many different types of bronze but believe copper is the main metal.
 
I looked at your mokume on your site again Laredo. It's beautiful but your knife page starts with those cursed pens. You have no idea how many of those I made for Christmas. Wood, steel, Damascus, brass and 12 out of deer antler and I still have relatives saying, "Gee...I sure would love to have one like you made your dad...:grumpy: ;)

Question....do you use a dedicated forge for your Mokume?
 
Peter- Yeah, I know, but right now i can't change the order of how my items are displayed. But if you goto the menu on the left and click on example knives and then on fixed blades, it will filter out the pens. The pens are under the "other" catagory.

No, I use the same forge for everything, and haven't had any problems with welding. Right now since I built a new vertical forge, I don't have the ability to do mokume. I cut the forge door too small to fit my pressure plates. But I will probably just build another horizontal forge for mokume and non forgw welding work. It is amaizing how many people want pens isn't it? ;) :barf: Kinda got sick of them myself. Feels good to make knives again. But this coming X-Mas I am going to try out making some jewelry. Should be pretty cool.

Raymond- Bronze melts around 1740°F and coper melts at 1951°F. I just had to look them up.;) The temps are up there, but not real high. I know a few times when I was forging mokume I saw some beads of sweet. Copper looks "funny" in the forge too, kinda shiney looking compaired to steel.
 
I found a little info on Anvilfire. Sounds like the only thing to worry about is making sure the bronze is not berylium bronze:( I dont know how to tell what I have. I was told its silicon bronze. Well if I start complaining of pneumonia like sysmptoms remind me that I probably have berylium poisoning.
 
Do yourself a favor, forge that bronze as cool as you possibly can out of the forge. I used to forge a lot of sword and dagger fittings out of bronze boat driveshafts and if you can see it glow its almost oo hot.. If you hit the bronze when it is too hot you will crumble it or even more just splatter it all over. Nothing like hot molten metal flying at your feet and knees!!! One other thing, certain bronzes will start to un alloy once you have gotten them to a certain temp so you can make them really brittle real fast, so keep it cool and forge in the dark. I always looked for a LIGHT glow but never forged any succesfully over that without it coming apart. Silicon bronze is pretty forgiving so you shouldnt have too many problems if you take it slow and cool!

Good luck!

Alan
 
Thanks Alan,

And Thanks for the Nickel silver sheeting. Haven't quite figured out what I want to make with it..I'm thinking about trying some creative sheath work involving my forge, an aluminum form, and a vacuum pump:D

It was nice seeing you guys. You'll have to let me know when a good time to come treasure hunting would be. Hope the grinder works well for you.
 
I learned one trick with forging copper and it's alloys. If you're done with the piece but want to work harden it without bending or denting any part of it, hold it in the palm your hand and tap it with a real light chasing hammer. The head of it kind of "slaps" the metal and hardens it without putting any divets in it. Holding it in your palm keeps you from hitting it too hard and keeps you from marring the finish against an anvil or something.

Tim
 
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