Jammer

Mr. Max had not said anything about being new to blacksmithing. He said he hadn't made a sword in too long and had only been making axes. He asked about an alloy, then gave a more precise details about the alloy, as ask. Then he was labeled an idiot and was told to go back and read six pages of posts that say, why idiots shouldn't try to make swords.

Read his 3 posts. 

There goes another new member.

Maybe he blew himself up. Asked a question and hasn't logged in since. ??

I think I would remove the valve and give it a sniff. You would probably be OK but we would hate to never hear from you again and wonder???  Post some pics of your project.

Looks like you have made it past the name calling and fearmongering, Most have ran after one or two posts. Study and learn, enter with safety in mind. Casting and forging has it's dangers, but I don't think either is as dangerous as driving on the freeway.

Try to learn the terminology, It drives some people nuts. I blame the Smelting - Melting confusion on Goldmember and his unfortunate smelting accident.

Look at Aristotle furnace. It's for melting steel through a bloomery type furnace. I don't remember who was showing the process, maybe someone else knows or check out Lee Sauder's site.

Oops, Daniel beat me to it, I type too slow. But, I found it.

http://www.leesauder.com/pdfs/Aristotle's%20Steel.pdf

I haven't even checked out the ore pit that's supposed to be about 100 yards from my house. Neighbor told me where it is but says it's full of snakes. He has a big snake phobia, it's all he talks about.

The muffin was fireclay and sand, I haven't gotten any EPK yet. It looked really good for a time. It got white hot and I thought the ore might be melting, then it just collapsed.

I would like to get back down to the lake, but it seems I have a lot going on the next couple months.

Roasted the Ore today. Still trying to get this done before cold sets in. It's been too hot for me the last few months so I've just stayed inside and planned.

Here's a couple shots of the test muffin, it got very hot and melted, the ore didn't, but became magnetic.

What kind of pre-used bronze are you using? The off color should polish out unless you seriously overheated it. Was the mold hot when you poured?

The 752 Nickel-Silver contains about 17% Zinc, and the cartridge Brass has about 30% Zinc.. Do you think it helps with getting it to a fusing temp compared to 70/30 Cupronickel? I'm still looking for some high contrast metals like Cupronickel and Copper.

I had the handle and just drew a pattern from the end if it and cut it from the foam. I had to try it a couple times to get the handle to fit into the foam. Then I used the foam to make the core. I guess I didn't get a picture of the core mold. I had to use a round file to form the eye so it fit well into the head. If I make another one, I think I'll try to make the hourglass shape in the core instead of trying to file it in later. It was a lot of filing.

I did a brass melt last week and cast a 4# hammer head. I cut the pattern with a wire foam cutter and cut my initials in it with my CNC router. Rammed it up in greensand with a core made from sand and sodium silicate. I got the metal a little hot and, yes, it smoked and had some flames. I put some charcoal on top to cut the flames and let it set to cool before I poured. It came out a little better than expected, cleaned it up and put it on a hickory handle. This was zinc brass with 70% copper and 30% zinc. I like to cast Brass and Bronze and hope to cast some more Iron this fall. It sure is too hot right now to do much in the shop. I've been casting for several years and worked in a steel mill. I use PPE and stay away from the fumes.

Yes, you said that in your post, should have read it closer.

I've made my own Sodium Silicate for casting. It's very exothermic. I've got lab beakers and flasks, and am pretty careful. Still freaks my wife out.

Very good video and all safety precautions were well explained. Thanks for explaining the different grades of Hydrogen Peroxide. Not everyone knows you can get from 3% up to a 50% solution.

What are you looking for when adding the Hydrogen peroxide to know when you have added enough?

In, with, under, around... Just remove the gold before you smelt the iron ore.

That black sand from California is what they find with gold dust and along the beach. I had a bunch of it when I live in Washington, I didn't find any gold in it though.

The smaller pieces at the bottom of the last pic is from the lake. The other pieces are from Western Tennessee. I've got it broken down a little to help in the roasting, then we'll see how it looks. About half of what I got from the lake was just stained sand stone but I did get about 30 pounds of good looking stuff. Altogether I have just under 100 pounds unroasted.

When I tried the dumpling to test the ore, my refractory failed and fell apart. It got up to white heat but didn't start to melt.

Yes, Lee has a lot of good info on the web. http://leesauder.com/

This is some ore I've picked up over the past couple years. The ones with the holes in it I think are unusual. Some of the holes are lined with black and/or a glassy substance. I'm just a hobby rock hound, so I wondered what y'all think. Most of this is from Western Tennessee and some is from Georgia. After breaking some of it apart, it's hard to tell them apart. I took some pieces and heated them with a torch and then I could pick them up with a magnet, so it has some Iron. I may use Lee Sauder's method to check for a percentage.

Some also have some quartz like material in the ore, is that normal? The first picture is the small pockets with glassy lining, the second is the dark ore with the red lining. The last one is a big rock, about the size of a football, with all kinds of different looking stuff.

I've got a button hook somewhere, along with my Grandmother's button up shoes. I think the hook is cast iron if I remember right.

To get the bronze color requires a lot of copper. You can melt a small amount of Aluminum and then add copper, the copper will dissolve in the Aluminum at Aluminum temps. I believe you will have to get to at least 80% Copper to have color and any less copper will make a very brittle alloy. I've got some I made at about 50/50 and it shattered when I dropped it on concrete. You can get a good color with Aluminum Bronze but it can be difficult to cast. a much easier alloy would be Silicon Bronze or Tin Bronze.

I do mostly casting and a little Blacksmithing. I mainly got into forge work to make things to go with my castings. I was glad to find a Blacksmith site that had a foundry and casting section.

There are a lot of alloys. Here is a link to the Wiki page for Cooper Alloys. You have to be careful with Wiki, some info can be off or just plain wrong, but I haven't found much wrong with this one. If the link doesn't work just search Copper Alloy and go to the wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_alloy

It's nice to have a discussion about Brass and it's pros and cons. Good cover reduces flare ups, quick pouring into the closed mold will keep white flames to a minimum and great ventilation is always needed for any type of casting. I would be more concerned with leaded brass and unknown alloys.

One thing to consider is, the person that started this thread has not been back on here since his last post. Oct 2013.

Hmm, wonder I aint dead. Used to stand over 50 tons of Steel and throw 75# bags of it in. Then they decided it was eating up the refractory and let me have a couple bags.

I do everything outside now and try to stay out of smoke and fumes.