Hardening Copper...

[Disco Stu]

Any one know how? I've been wanting to try making a copper or perhaps brass blade but I don't know how one would go about hardening it. And yes, I know copper will make a piss-poor knife blade no mater what you do but I'm gonna try it anyway. So, how 'bout some ideas?

Disco Stu

 

[Robert Marotz]

I'm no expert but I think work-hardening is your only real option.

 

[R Dockrell]

Opposite of blade steel.
Heat to dull red and let it cool slowly.
Be carefull not to melt it down. It will also work harden.

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Robert
Flat Land Knife Works
rdblad@telusplanet.net
http://members.tripod.com/knifeworks/index.html

 

[richard rosvall]

Try a bronze alloy. Some of the stuff used for bearings gets pretty hard.

 

[Yvsa]

:
Many, many years ago I saw a nice copper blade knife in a museum in Montana up around Gacier Nat'l Park.
It was on the order of the Beaver Tail Daggers that some of the Northern Tribes used.
The story behind the old Indin copper blades were that they were more durable than the obsidian, flint and other stone blades.
Of course I couldn't hold the knife, but it appeared to have a pretty sharp edge, a lot sharper than one would expect from copper.
And being young and an ndn I looked it over really good the best I could with it in a glass case.


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"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.