Dustin Quade Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Another couple of christmas gifts. This was my first attempt at making these and im pretty happy with how they came out. My only issue is that when i took the pieces from the forge and quenched them into the water the copper turned black. It was a tough black that took alot of hand sanding to remove and even so there is still some there. Anyone have any tips for me on how to either avoid this happening or how to more easily remove this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Nice work. Might help to know some more specifics, like what type of forge and what your process was for forging them for other more knowledgable people to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Quade Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 2 minutes ago, Daswulf said: Nice work. Might help to know some more specifics, like what type of forge and what your process was for forging them for other more knowledgable people to help. Good point. I use a propane forge. Its just 1 burner. The copper is 20 gauge thicknesses which I picked up from the metal supermarket. I drew the rose pattern onto the metal and drilled holes for the centers of each piece as well as the point where every leaf comes together at the middle. I cut them all out using tin snips and then took them to the belt sander to take off all the sharp edges. I used a 220 grit belt. Then I took them to the forge where I heated each piece until it was just starting to glow and I quenched straight into cold water. That’s when the black stuff appeared on the copper. The stem I forged to shape and tapered to a point at the bottom. The top I sanded flat and drilled a ¼” hole in it which I threaded so I could use a simple threaded bolt to hold all the petals tight to the stem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 So you heated the petals in the forge then quenched to anneal the copper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 look into removing the firescale chemically sparex #2 will work IIRC (it can also be sourced cheaply in bulk at pool supply stores once you look up the chemical involved.) an old crock pot can heat the mix so it works faster too NEVER REUSE FOR FOOD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Quade Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 1 minute ago, Daswulf said: So you heated the petals in the forge then quenched to anneal the copper? Yea that way it was soft enough i could bent all the petals to shape by hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Ok. I've used a mapp gas hand torch to do that and if the pieces were cleaned to start with I didn't get any kind of scale or coating, just colors. If the forge is your only option then I guess Thomas's method would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 1 hour ago, Dustin Quade said: I use a propane forge. where I heated each piece until it was just starting to glow and I quenched straight into cold water. Try taking the copper to a higher heat (orange), and then quench in clean cold water, that should help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Is your propane forge tuned to reducing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Quade Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 17 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Is your propane forge tuned to reducing? Im sorry but im not sure what that means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K.C. Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 If you use .016 copper there is no need to heat in your forge. you can texture them cold and put them on the stem. when you tighten the fastener start at the center petals and shape with needle nose pliers. when its all shaped how you like it you can apply SLOW heat to change the color of the copper to taste. a shot of clear coat will make them look really nice too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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