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I Forge Iron

Kiel366

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Posts posted by Kiel366

  1. Hi!

    I just wanted to get an answer about Al, because I actually managed to forge 2 blades (the smaller one in the attached picture) without Al breaking (hammering 10h each to form a bar into it). I don't know how to replicate the conditions under I first done it.

     

    Today I tried to work with the broken pieces I casted yesterday and to my surprise they were quite hard. They broke, but after like an hour of hammering. The bar I've made my blade of was lying for a couple of weeks. Is it possible that Al hardens by itself after some time? How to make it not break at all during hammering?

     

    Now I know about annealing and that I have to use a crucible. Thanks for that. Any other important point I may be missing? How much iron is dissolving into my Al while it melts?

     

    BTW: After my ingots broke today while hammering, I got so annoyed that I decided to cast a flat Al plane and cut spear heads out of it. They look terrible but they are.

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  2. So how do you get rid of the grains?

     

    The reason why I use aluminium is its low melting point. I read Al it's very forgable and rather soft,so I wanted to start with it. I also want to stick to traditional (old, historical) metalworking methods. So the metal ust be somehow smelted and cast before it's worked. How to prepare my material to forging? Maybe it would just be easier if I used bronze or copper?

  3. Hi!
    I buy my materials at a scap yard. Recently I bought some aluminium and some brass. My ultiate goal is to forge a sword. In order to do this I have to melt down the scrap and cast a simple sword base, which I'm gonna forge later.

     

    I tried Al first. I poured the metal into my fossil shell flour mould and let it cool down (without adding any water). Then I heated it up a bit (200-300 deg.) and started hammering. Everything was all right until after one hit it just craced. More hammering caused more cracks. I use a stone as my anvil.

     

    I'm concerned that sth is wrong with my casts as both Al and brass look 'grainy' when they break apart.

    What a I missing? What am I doing wrong? Maybe I heat and forge it incorrectly?

     

    I'm attaching a photo of the broken sword pieces.

     

    Someone with ore experience please help me.

    Thanks.

    post-56224-0-39901000-1415644618_thumb.j

    post-56224-0-84517700-1415644680_thumb.j

    post-56224-0-77876400-1415644718_thumb.j

  4. Thank you, guys, for your advice. It really helped. My casts are not gassy. I tried not putting water on a cast and it worked. I've successfully forged a spear head.

     

    A slight problem I have is that I don't know how to connect two pieces of a cast (e.g when I mess up forging a bit and I end up with some stand-off pieces): at low temp it doesn't connect and at high temp it breaks (maybe because I have a lot of oxyde in there as I havn't used clear Al, but the best pieces of the bars I ruined with water). Either way, if oxyde is not the case, please help.

     

    BTW: Is it possible I can poison myself with coal smoke?

  5. The ingots are very pourous and look like as they were built of styroform (a lot of little bubbles I think [really, a lot, like a tenth of mm in diameter]). I bought the Al on a scrapyard, but in cylindrical bars, so I thought it is clean. On the same scrapyard I bought the crucible (an iron pot) and bulit a brick furnace powered by coal. The clay I use I mine myself next to my house. I know it sounds catastrophic, but I possibly wanted to stick to the ancient methods of forging. In my opinion, gas in the problem and I have no idea about "degassing".

     

    Some of it also sometimes turns into a kind of powder when I hit it with a stick just before melting. I only wonder, why, on low temp, I somehow managed to flattern an Al bar with my hammer, without breaking it. It became 2 times flatter but same dimensions. Then when I forged it, it was perfecly forgable and I even managed to create a simple spear head. However, after making a "sword base" case, I wanted to flattern it and it just cracked into pieces upon the forst hit. Conclusion: if I have a small enough cast, like an ingot and I manage to flatter it, decreasing the volume 2x it becomes forgable... WHAT IS GOING ON?

  6. Hi!

    I started my smithing/smelting adventure not long ago. I've built a furnace, melt some alluminium, poured it into my clay cast, let it cool down (and used water to make the process faster). Then I wanted to make a sword out of it (as it was just a base stick cast). I heated it up, hit it with a hammer and... it just cracked. Later I discovered that I can even tear my casted metal pieces apart with my bare hands...

    Please tell me guys, what am I doing wrong?

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