Mike Ameling

I've got several 3 inch thick blocks of iron I use for special project anvils. They were just cut-offs or drop-outs from the scrap yard. But they work well - as long as you keep the metal you are forging HOT. They occasionally take a dent from a bad hammer blow, but are pretty easy to clean back up.

So there is nothing wrong with using those 3" blocks.

And then there is that 100 plus pound granite anvil for the Viking blacksmithing demonstrations. It is a pie or wedge shape with a flat top and bottom surface. As long as I only forge iron that is glowing red or hotter, I have had no problems on it. Even the "edges" have held up well for bending/fullering - as long as I only hammer HOT iron on it.

I've also used sections of tractor drawbar as an anvil. Drawbar from a bulldozer would be larger/thicker. And don't forget about those forklift tines! Great flat steel to use as an anvil.

Just a few thoughts to ponder.

Mikey

p.s. The one local welding/repair shop has a "block" setting next to their power hacksaw that I've been eyeballing. It's round and about 8 inches tall by 6 inches in diameter. Don't know what they cut it off of, but it would work well for some projects. With the edges rounded down, it would be a good forming block for some sheet iron kettles. Toys ... more toys ...

A couple years ago I saw a demo of some Fold Forming techniques with flat bars. They had also worked some of it into bracelets.

You take a flat strip of iron (like 1/2 x 1/8 or 3/4 x 1/8), fold it in half, and hammer the fold down tight. Then heat and bend the two legs back out. Then heat and hammer that T shape left by the bend down flat. This leaves a squished square-topped T section in your original bar. Angling the bend also them angles that decorative section. A few of these spaced around a piece cut long enough for a bracelet had a pretty nice look - especially when the "high" points were buffed up.

I don't remember who did the demo. I probably saw in on one of the demo tapes from UMBA (Upper Midwest Blacksmith Association).

Just a possibility.

Most of the bracelets I've made have been variations of that Celtic inspired C. Made from brass brazing rod hammered square and twisted gives a nice look when the high points get polished a bit. I either taper/curl the ends, or flatten/fair them. Plus the Living History reenactment people love them for use as a blanket or cloak pin - altho documentation for those with an attached pivoting "pin" seem lacking between the 1600's and early 1800's. The only documentation found so far is for their use with a separate straight pin when used as a cloak/blanket pin - like the Scottish great kilt pins.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

You might try seeing if King Architectural Metals might have those railing finials you need. They make lots of "weld on" architectural iron work.

Mikey

The main problem is with the tapered nail shaft pushing the wood fibers apart. So the shaft of the nail needs to be fairly straight on the sides pushing against the wood fibers. The sides going with the wood grain are less affected by a tapered "wedge" shape - especially when the nail "cuts" through those fibers as it is being hammered in.

So lots of the early nails had a flat point on them - to "cut" through the wood fibers. Then any "wedge" effect is minimized in the wood.

Just some humble thoughts to ponder.

Mikey

For small things, I just soak it for a few hours in household vinegar. That vinegar will just flake the rust right off - including scouring out the rust from the pits in the metal as well. Amazing stuff!

For bigger things I've used the WD-40 and Liquid Wrench stuff. A couple applications over a couple days seems to loosen things up.

But the best stuff dad ever got came from an electrician working for the power company. They were replacing a lightning zapped transformer, and he offered dad some of the fluid from inside that junked transformer. Don't know what it was, but that stuff worked great on old farm machinery! Since then I've heard that it contains those PCB's.

So I stick with vinegar and WD-40.

Mikey

I generally use the chop-saw to cut a leaf spring to length. Then I get "creative" in cutting to thinner dimensions. Sometimes with the chop-saw, sometimes with an abrasive cutting blade in the skil-saw, and sometimes hot slitting with a chisel and the treadle hammer.

It's always a matter of what I need to do at the moment.

Mikey

Nice solution to a tricky problem.

There are pictures/drawings of several other versions in the one Otto Schmirler book Werk und Werkzeug des Kunstschmieds isbn 3-8030-5040-5.

Most of the books about Schmirler's work are ... eye-candy. Mostly pictures of the finished work. But this one shows the tools and how to use them. The drawings are in color and very good at showing each piece. And what text there is in the book is in German and English and French. The pictures tell the whole story, but the text can "clarify" some details.

This book should be one of the MUST HAVE books on the shelf. But that's just my ... jaded opinion.

The slitting/punching tools are on pages 84 to 88. Several for the Vice, and a combo one for the anvil - including a spring loaded bottom plate that spreads apart as your chisel starts to cut through your work piece. It even illustrates slitting/punching/drifting at an angle through your work stock! Plus, on page 77, a great little tool for consistent spacing of punched through holes when making grills/railings.

Again, great little tool. It sure helps to have them - when you don't have that "extra pair of hands" about!

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

Naked: Thanks for the explanation. I've got to find a piece of appropriate stock and try it. Might make a nice first project when I get my new Diamondback forge set up. Don't think my poor little charcoal washtub forge will get a big piece of steel hot enough, at least with the softwood charcoal I am using.

Hi, Bill.

Yes, it will. But it will also require a lot more fuel. A suggestion on that: Pre-heat your metal in a regular campfire. A 20 minute "soak" in the middle of a good campfire will get that large chunk of metal well up into the orange heat stage. Then slide it over into your charcoal forge for that extra draft and heat.

Of course, by the time you have that campfire going well, you might just as well use it for all the heat necessary to forge a bick. Just use a long section of small diameter pipe to supply some extra air to perk the heat up. Some 1/4 inch copper tubing with the end smooshed almost closed will supply lots of direct air to the coals in your fire. If you use that "flaring" tool on the other end, it works a bit better as a mouthpiece. Or tape some compressed air into that "blow tube" instead. But do smoosh that end almost closed. It concentrates the air into a small area. I use a section of copper tubing like that as a blowpipe for my wood stove all the time. The end is smooshed almost closed - leaving a hole only about the size of a pin.

And when you are done using that campfire to pre-heat or to forge with, it should have burned down well enough to coals to be ready for some ... grilling!

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterland

I picked up the companion book to the 2001 BBC show off of evil-bay. I had been looking for the video's - either vhs or dvd, but only found the book. Although, the book does talk about a bunch of the stuff that never made it into the show. Like the modern stuff that got hid away whenever the cameras were rolling. And all the complaints about the poor food, cold/wet feet, lack of "beverages", and how rough/dirty the lifestyle was (at least in their interpretation of it). It sounds like it had too much of that Frontier House or Colonial House mentality to it - that "interesting" paid vacation to put on the resume/vita and acting credits.

I never saw the series on TV. I don't get any cable/dish/satellite. Plus I did not know about that earlier version from the 70's.

You might try Amazon books to see if they have the videos. The isbn for the book I got is 0-563-53402-8.

Mikey

Most of my work is in that ... luxury ... field, even though it is smaller stuff. I do reproduction iron work for people involved in recreating the Fur Trade era in North America. It's a pretty ... niche ... market. There are only a few parks/museums to deal with, so the rest is individuals.

Yes, sales have dropped off dramatically over the winter. Now, this is usually a slow time anyway. But this year it has been worse. One good point is that most of my items are "relatively" inexpensive to purchase.

My flint strikers run high for the general marketplace, but I make up for that with quality and styling. Mine generally sell for around $15 each, while most places sell their generic versions for $8 to $10. Given a choice, most people tend to go my way. But I still get contacted by people wanting wholesale/resale pricing of around $4 to $8 each - including the fancier shapes/styles. I understand them wanting be able to sell cheaper and still make money, but I don't work that cheap.

The iron-handled clasp knife reproductions go in cycles. Sometimes interest is up, sometimes it is down. But I can generally sell any that I make when I get them done. So the economy hasn't hurt that part - yet. I've thought about upping the $35 I charge for them, but know that would hurt sales. Plus it ain't a bad wage for less than an hour of fun ... tinkering. (a half hour or less if I really worked at it)

But the economic slow-down has hurt me in other ways as well - sort of second hand. There are several people that owe me for past work/materials that are having a hard time paying me. One guy still owes me over $1400 for going on 2 years now. He was going to start slowly paying it off starting in January. But then he lost his full-time job - 3 days after signing the papers to buy a new acreage just outside of town! So I'm back to "hind teat" for getting paid. And other people have had similar experiences with their sudden ... unemployment.

So I have continued on --- sold a few "toys" --- covered current bills/obligations --- and life goes on.

Right now my main goal is to not have to ask you if "... you want fries with that? ...". As long as I can stay ahead of that, I'm good.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

The biggest concern with forging in any structure ends up being ventilation. You need to vent out that forge smoke. But you also need to replace that air with fresh air coming in.

Home insurance is a big problem. If you ... charge ... for anything you do or make, your normal home-owners insurance will not cover any loss. A friend found that out when he caught part of his attached garage on fire while arc-welding a car part for a buddy. THE FIRST QUESTION his insurance agent asked him was IF he had charged the guy for welding it. He said NO, and then the agent told him the rest of the possible "horror story". His fire was covered, but could just as easily have not been.

A different friend ended up with that new construction on an exiting lot problem. The "technicality" he used to get around it was if the new addition was ATTACHED to an existing house or garage. So all his little additions were always ATTACHED to either the house of the existing garage. But he mostly just worked on restoring and overhauling vehicles. Plus he worked for John Deere and set up his "shop" with all safety in mind. So he didn't do any forging or foundry work at home - just some welding and machining. His home-owners insurance reflected what he did and had in those extended buildings. He ended up with just a little strip of lawn out front of the house, with the rest of his lot covered with ... 2 ... buildings.

My forge was just under a large plastic tarp for years. First just covered over, uncovered to use, then tucked back under. Later I put up wood poles and set the tarp up like a tent with ropes out to stakes to hold it all in place.

Something you might check into would be Temp Structures, or those utility/garden sheds and any regulations associated with them.

Good luck with your project.

Mikey

A farriers' anvil tends to have more of a horn on it than the classic London pattern anvil. That extended "horn" offers more options when forming horse shoes. Kind of like having a CONE mandrel helps when forming rings. More of a horn means more options for size/diameter and curves for bends. Plus, some farrier's anvils also have two pegs sticking out of the one side - to also help you "bend" horse shoes.

The other thing is that many farriers' anvils tend to be smaller and a little more "portable". It's a little easier to lug them around to do your work on-site.

I have a Haybudden anvil out on the one workbench - around 120#. It is the classic London pattern, but has a few things kind of pointed towards farriers. It has a little longer horn, and it has the "toe clip" extension on the side of the anvil step - between the horn and face. But the whole anvil has the majority of the "mass" directly below the anvil face. And is a normal height and length. So there should be no problems using it for normal work --- associated with using a 120# anvil.

Mikey

Another thing to keep in mind is that many saw blades are now bi-metal blades. They have a different metal alloy for the teeth than they do for the rest of the blade. That way they can put special carbide alloys for the cutting teeth, while using different metal alloy for its "toughness" properties for the rest of the blade.

Sometimes it is just the cutting tips of the teeth, sometimes it runs into the blade a bit. Just something to watch out for.

Mikey

The Junkyard Steels chart says L6.

But it really depends upon what the manufacturer used - and during what years.

Mikey

One further "manufacturing" tip that I had forgot about until ... tinkering ... today.

Before you bend that sheet into the U shape for the handle, CLEAN UP what will be that INSIDE part FIRST.

I was working on a handle today and forgot to clean it up until I had bent it into that U shape. So I had to take a thin strip of metal, wrap it into some sandpaper, and then "CLEAN" that inside of the surface rust on the metal! I got it cleaned up, but had to ... tinker ... more than I should have.

It's also mildly important to do some of that cleaning on the end of the blade around that pivot hole as well.

Just little things ....

Mikey

These were made from ... agricultural steel ... basically a new bolt-on plow share. They are made from 1080 carbon steel. I bought the original new part from the local farm fleet store for around 20 bucks. It is 3/8 inches thick, and the whole piece was 4 inches wide by around 20 to 24 inches long (can't remember just how long point-to-point). That's a lot of quality carbon steel for the price - and no "shipping" charges. Yes, you do have to work around a couple square mounting holes where you bolt it onto the plow. And possibly some part numbers stamped into the metal.

I heated it up, flattened it, and left it to anneal. Then I cut it up with the chop-saw into smaller and more usable sizes.

I've also made some from a heavy/thick truck spring scrap I had on hand. So that should have been 1085 or 5160.

Files work OK, but their original sizes and thickness can be a little limiting. But you also have to be careful with those files. So many newer ones are soft/mild steel that has been case-hardened. So only a few thousandths of an inch has high enough carbon in it to work well as a flint striker. Clip a small chunke off the end of your file and see if it will heat-treat. It will save all the work if it is just junker steel inside. I have several knife maker friends that learned that the hard way. One put 40 hours of work into a knife blade made from an older file only to find out that it would not heat-treat. That's a ... hard lesson ... to learn!

Now, just forging up some whales for ... art's sake ... you can use most any iron you have on hand. And generic 1018/A36 will work far easier that high carbon tool steel. But if you are going to want to use it as a flint striker, then you need that high-carbon tool steel to start with.

Many pieces of "agricultural" steel is 1080 - like those bolt on plow shares, cultivator points/shovels, disc blades, etc. And the modern hay rake teeth are closer to 1095 spring steel. One now sells for around 1.33 down at the farm fleet store. When you heat it up and straighten it out, you end up with about 30 to 36 inches of 1/4 inch diameter round rod. Compare that to buying the same amount of 1095 Drill Rod. You can often buy the finished part for less than new steel would cost - and without any shipping and waiting.

Plus don't forget about those old lawn mower blades. Generally 1084 or 5160. And you can usually pick them up for free. Great for knife making.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

I've generally just used rivets. Here's a pic of several spider frypans, and a tabletop brazier or chafing dish (I think that's the name).



That little brazier is designed to have live coals from your fire put into it, and a pot/pan/kettle then set on top - to keep food warm. You can cook over it, but it takes more work keeping the heat up.

The legs on those frypans are pretty simple/straight forward. But I went much fancier on that brazier. I based them on several mid to late 1700's originals. The basic leg shape before scrolling is somewhat Keyhole shaped. The top is flared out to the sides to spread the area where it gets riveted to the pan. Then it is necked in fairly tight, and then slowly flared back out to form the feet. I then rolled/scrolled the ends and gave the whole legs a gentle curve.

Sorry for the poor pic. My digital camera is a cheapo/junker that does OK snapshots, just not closeups.

Just a couple more options for feet on your bowls.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. The shovel is a 1700's style repro. The two parts to form the top and handle socket are riveted together instead of forge welded. Both methods were used on the originals. The main shovel blade is 14 gauge, while the front of the socket and blade is 18 gauge. Cold formed, fullered, and swaged to shape. Then drilled and riveted. Plus the top edges of the shovel are bent over 90 degrees - to be "kinder" on your shoe when digging with it. Another fun historical project. And that smaller size is very handy when working around the campfire cooking, moving coals to a dutch oven, or filling a brazier with hot coals. But I still do need to make one into a "frypan" like that one Rev War original.

A couple decades ago, a friend made around $400 over a 2-day living history weekend selling "nails" for a buck a piece! He had made up a bunch of nails before he got there, but did "make" some as the days went on. He sat next to his campfire with a couple rods stuck into it. And he had a low stump on the ground with a block type anvil. He would do a quick taper, cut mostly through, snap it off in the header tool, and smack the head a couple times. Then cool in water and throw the nail into a wood bowl with a sign next to it saying $1 each or 6 for $5.

He only occasionally worked at making a nail - to help draw the crowd. Any time the bowl started getting short on nails, he would unobtrusively put another handful in from his stash.

He got lots of quality "talking" time done with his buddies, and made a few bucks to help with the food/beverage bill. And he never even worked up a sweat doing it! And since he was just ... making nails ... he didn't get all those other requests that blacksmiths get when demonstrating. Plus no forge, and almost no tools to lug around. Of course, he did have his whole history of nails shpeel for anyone who asked or wanted to listen.

Forged nails are a nice little ... souvenir ... for the people. Plus it is something they can use back home - to tack into the wall and hang a coat/picture from. And you can always curl the end so that it can be worn as a necklace. A quick little inexpensive trinket.

Mikey

I use either the old large two-man crosscut saws, or those big sawmill bandsaw blades. The last two-man crosscut saw blade I started working with was ... too brittle. It's good for some things, but wanted to crack/break in an unpredictable manner. The big sawmill bandsaw blades work well. But stay away from the area of the teeth. A lot of saw blades are bi-metal. The teeth area has a higher quality of tool steel while the rest of the blade is of lower quality. The "junkyard steels" chart says the blades are L6.

I carefully chisel out the shape of the knife blade, but a tad larger than needed. I then carefully grind it down to the final profile/dimensions. I keep it cool all the time - to retain the original heat-treat of the saw blade. If it's getting too hot to hold in your fingers, then you cool it right away. So there is no heat involved in making a knife like this. It's all done cold.

Now, getting that pivot hole in the blade can be a problem. That hardened tool steel tends to just eat up drill bits! Even the expensive ones! So I made up a punch with a vary small end. I then lay the future knife blade over a bottom block, and "punch" the hole through. I lightly tap the first time to make sure I have the right spot lined up. Then I hit the punch several more times, a little harder each time. Eventually the punch will shear through a slug out of the saw blade, and push it down into that bottom block. I then run a drill bit through the hole to "true" it up.

The large bandsaw blade is "soft" enough to drill as-is. Yet it still has enough tool steel in it and heat-treat to hold an edge pretty well. Like any carbon steel knife, you do have to touch up the working edge in use.

A plasma or lazer cutter/torch could be used to cut out the knife blanks. Any loss of the original heat-treat along the cut edges would be ground away as you clean up the profile, and do the final shaping.

No, these are not ... high quality custom knife maker type knives. Just a working persons little ... sharp!

Mikey

When I form the U shaped handle, I put a scrap piece of 12 gauge into the U and then tap things together pretty tight. That way I can smooth up the bend and the sides. But sometimes it gets kind of hard to then get that scrap 12 gauge piece back out! And that 12 gauge ends up being only slightly thicker than the saw blade material I use to form the knife blade. But I might need to scrounge up a chunk of 10 gauge to use as a spacer. That might cut down on the "tweaking" I end up having to do to get the blade to pivot in and out of that handle. It's always easy to "tighten" the handle up by tapping it closer together, but a lot harder to spread it back apart just a tick! It's something of a balancing act - tight enough that the blade doesn't just flop in/out too easily, but not so tight that you need a pliers to open the knife. Tinkering.

Mikey

Nice looking Knives there Mike! I like the simplicity of the design and function.
If you sell them, what do you get for one...say the bigger one? Do you put a shim/spacer on the opposite end from the hinge to keep the fold from collapsing?

I don't put any spacer in. That 14 gauge sheet holds up very well in use, and resists collapsing very well. If fact, if I tap them too tight, it's kind of hard to open the U back up a bit. And if the pivot joint or blade gets a little loose with use, you just carefully/lightly tap that rivet/pin a bit - or around the sides of the knife - to tighten things back up. The 20 gauge I used on that bottom one still held its shape very well. It felt ... "tinnier" ... but still kept its shape and spacing in use.

Yes, I do sell them. But these already got spoken for - except for that little skew-point knife. And it's been kind of growing on me. I might have to find a corner in my one hunting pouch to tuck it into.

I've been selling these for $35 each, but I've been contemplating popping that up to $45. That 35 is where I started at several years ago, and I haven't adjusted pricing since then. The work is still the same, but materials have been climbing. Plus they are now more in ... demand ... at the Living History events around me. Pricing is always such an "inexact science".

There is one guy I know that made his own up. He modified the style a bit. He forge a knife blade with a curly-q tang. Then he shaped his U handle, but cut the bend back a bit from the blade end - leaving two side "tabs" sticking up. He drilled and pinned the blade through those extended tabs. So when he opens his version up, that curly-q tang pivots around and stops when it reaches the rest of the U bend back. He made his knife like those antler handled folders they call Early Uglies. It still looked pretty good!

A few people were concerned about the cutting edge closing into that U shaped handle and then resting/touching the metal. They worried about their ... razor edge sharpening. So they took a little strip of leather and glued it down inside the bottom of that U handle. So the cutting edge of the blade then touches that leather instead of the metal. Personally I haven't experienced enough of a problem with it to worry about it. My knife is a Working Knife. And I touch up the edge as needed.

I don't have unreasonable expectations about a knife edge. I don't expect to sharpen it razor sharp today, use it hard for a year come next Tuesday, and expect it to still shave hair at that time. But many people expect that of a knife. A "working" carbon steel knife will dull in normal use. You just touch the edge up as needed/required.

These are just a fun project to ... tinker with.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Now I gotta go make some more. And I picked up more 14 gauge sheet today to do so.

Well, I thought there was a drawing or picture of that other combo nail header/cutter with lever in one of the Eric Sloane books, but I couldn't find it. And I also checked Edge of the Anvil, Art of Blacksmithing, Making Tools, and Early American Wrought Iron. Not in them either. I know I saw it in one of these books around here.

But I did find a grainy photo on my ... "infernal machine" ... but without any description or notes of where the pic came from. So here's the pic.



It does not have an "anvil" block, but it does have that cutter and header. And that lever to pop the nail back out. The other nail header in the pic looks a lot like the Williamsburg header - except this one would have been set down into the stump next to the anvil.

It's an interesting combo tool. It almost looks like they made a cut-off hardy, then a nail header with long legs and welded it to that cut-off hardy. And then added that lever to pop the nail back out. And all with that tang to set down into the hardy hole.

Now all this has got me back to thinking about nail making again. I'm going to have to see about setting up a Colonial era Nail Makers tool kit - a good demo for Living History events. And at a few "pence" per nail to the tourists, it could also go a long ways towards keeping me in food/beverages at the events - without working ... too hard!

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

Yes, Jay Hisel of Big River Forge had made up a bottom swage to fit his hardy hole - for making leaves. You got your basic leaf shape, then heated the end back up and hammered it down into that bottom swage. It gave you a leaf with raised veins in it.

It was made from a 3/8 inch thick plate with tang welded on. The center area was dished ever so slightly. And then there were leaf veins chiseled in it - a big vein up the center, and then smaller ones radiating off on either side.

Then only ... problem ... using it was holding it steady/tight to the swage for multiple hits. A small leaf you could smack into that swage with one hit. But a larger or longer leaf required several hits to get the full impression over all of it. So you REALLY needed to keep it in exactly the same spot for every hit after that first one. Or you got double veins or veins with a side-step in them.

It would be better to use a flatter and a helper/striker to do that leaf impression in one good hit.

It's still a good tool for quick production of leaves, and for getting them pretty consistent. And the raise veins do more closely resemble actual leaves - than those with the veins chiseled down into them. Both have their place.

There are good and bad parts to having another blacksmith living near by. Yes, you do get to share ideas, and help each other out with projects. But there also is much more temptation to ... play ... instead of work. I've got friends that sometimes stop by to work on projects. When they do, I just know I will not get anything done - and I plan accordingly. For them it's "get some work/project" done. For me it's a time to ... play, and just possibly get a side project done.

Mikey

Congrats on seeing what was needed and making that decision - before quitting completely in disgust. And you are not the first to have done this.

There is one knife maker here in the Upper Midwest who jumped right from that "I made an S-hook" to making Layered Damascus knives - including mosaic, moku-gamae (sp), exotic materials, etc. And he's been featured in BLADE magazine several times. But his blacksmithing skills are almost non-existent. He barely knows enough to forge weld up a damascus billet and rough forge it to shape. The rest of his work is "machining". Now he does do a very good job of that grinding/sanding/fitting. But he still has problems heading a rivet, or forging a taper and scroll. He jumped over and skipped those basics. He's basically a machinist.

And if you talk any kids through an introduction to blacksmithing, you see it happen all the time. You talk them through making a passable S-hook. And then they pick up a chunk of tractor drawbar, hold it up and say "can I make a sword out of this now?" That brief introduction has them wanting to jump over years of work/practice/learning/experience right to a high skill end. The really hard part is then trying to explain reality to them without discouraging them.

Mikey

And you always wondered how the term PEA-SHOOTER came about! And that little sister deserved it! So did my two younger brothers! (mostly because Ma caught them starting the food fight and ratted me out!)

This wire doesn't have much of an oxidation layer on it. More of a ... dulling ... of the finish on it. It's supposed to be stainless, and the cut end shows it is true throughout - no outside coating. So I'm pretty sure it's just a little dulling/oxidation of the surface. Stainless does stain and rust, it just takes longer. It also work-hardened a little in the twisting and bending.

Yes, that old telephone wire does have that copper coating. And it's tough stuff! It lasts a long time holding a muffler up under a pickup truck - even through our winter salt/snow seasons. That copper coating does not affect its use in eating - unless you are hyper-sensitive to copper.

Mikey