ILikeShinySteel

It does look like it has less grain and finer one, so the etching would be finer as well. Heavy etching would likely be bad anyway as it could make it quite uncomfortable to wear as it's given sharp edges and sanding the inside smooth could make it loose. Something to consider. You could always try a very quick dip in ferric chloride. But ultimately if the grains very fine, the finish will be too, cant change that.

I could be wrong but I always thought that to cold weld like that the surfaces had to be perfectly clean, which is why it happens is space. But if they're coated with any kind of lubricant or rust preventative like oil they wouldn't be able to weld due to a layer of oil/"contaminant" between the metal surfaces

I know its somewhat old but to add to this, contrary to what most have said, machining is far superior in practicality's sake. You can make things you would never make with hammer and tongs. For example, a blacksmith might use a swage block which was machined to have perfectly round indents (i know they can be forged but it isnt nearly as precise). Perfectly flat and round surfaces can also be machined/ turned whereas they would never be hammered that way. Personally I would be over the moon if I had my own lathe and milling machine, and intend on making one someday. But thats because I love making things and some things can only be made by machining. Obv blacksmithing takes the cake in terms of aesthetics and beauty but to me personally aesthetics are often second to practicality. Theres also no reason they have to be mutually exclusive, a Smith could forge a nice pleasant piece that needs specific tolerances to fit a certain application and those areas can be machined, leaving the rest of the piece nice to the eye.

Is that the stuff which is magnetic iron powder? Would it have the strength to form a mould or would the surface finish end up really rough with crumbly edges?

Hefty your right, it does work and after crushing it like you said a bullet blender will make it extremely fine. I buy powder bentonite from milton pottery store-it's next to the river- it very cheap compared to the effort required powdering it yourself and its much finer than you'll be able to get. Also hefty for you specifically that milton place sells extremely good refractory linings, like zircon flour, if your looking for it

I've only just checked the threads at the bottom of the site and what terrible news to hear. Frosty was always willing to help and give his time so others can learn and was so generous with the advice and help he gave. It wont quite be the same without him. My deepest condolences to his family and may he rest in peace

First well need a bit more info: What is the total diameter of the flower? How do you intend on casting it? What mould material do you plan on using? Do you have enough tin to do a second? Dont be surprised if you get lots of replies telling you not to do it without proper equipment and that its terribly dangerous; proper equipment is ideal and it is dangerous, however common sense and planning can make it very safe. Assuming you intend on using improvised equipment pouring it out of some sort of steel container heated with maybe a blowtorch in the forge or even a JABOD furnaces, you will NEED this equipment: -Pouring vessel (if you sont want to purchase a crucible, a thick steel container will do, you can weld some square tubing to a metal plate and it works great, corner acts as a spout) - tongs for pouring (if welding your own container you can weld a handle on and wrap the handle with leather or cloth before pouring, the handle shouldn't get too hot if its outside the forge/furnace) -mould material and box -forge/furnaces of some type. -PPE (welding gloves, long pants, boots, welding jacket idealising or thick long sleeve shirt and jacket, glasses (face shield is better but can cause problems-i use glasses) Starting with pouring vessel, if you dont have one and can weld, the square tubing on plate steel with a handle works great. If you already have one, make sure your pouring tongs fit it and can hold it steady-load it to the maximum capacity with metal and try carrying and pouring and going through the motions while it's cold. The mould material, i assume you are using greensand/petrobond. If you dont have any yet, don't buy petrbond it's so expensive. Find a pottery store and buy powder bentonite clay, buy the finest silica sand you can get without paying an arm and leg, sieve the sand to get it as fine as possible and then you can mix the sand and clay with either water for greensand or old motor oil, 2 stroke engine oil, really any motor oil, used or new will do. Ideally fresh 2 stroke smokeless is best, but almost anything will work for a one time off. Mix it using methylated spirits, you can google a recipe or ask ai, but ultimately it's best to just use a recipe for the clay and slowly mix oil and metho till it feels right. The box, you can knock a box up in 30 mins of you have basic woodworking power tools and scrap wood. Easy done i won't explain it it's so simple. Ramming the mould: the best thing would be something you carve like Styrofoam, or something a little harder, that you carve the shape you want t(carve the flower shape, shouldn't be too hard, smooth with sandpaper). Then place that face up on a flat surface, place the box around it and dust with talcum powder or graphite powder (cornstarch will do in a pinch) and then place sand over and begin ramming it, plenty videos on how to ram something, very simple. When done, cut the top of the sand flush woth the box, flip the box and remove the flower and stick the copper with in the sand and blow away any excess sand. This will probably take a few attempts. As for gateing and pouring, you could prob pour straight into the middle of the flower, but if you do make sure the copper isn't sticking into the middle or the tin will hit it and knock it around. When pouring do as close to the mould as possible and not too fast. Avoid anything that might possibly cause splashing. As for tinning the copper, it shouldn't because the tin should solidify pretty quickly and its pure tin, howver, I haven't done much soldering and I've never poured tin before (cant get it) so I could be wrong, however, if it does you should be able to scrub the tin off with steel wool, brush, sandpaper probably even a green cleaning sponge. Obv the copper won't melt either SAFETY: When pouring dont lean in really far, find a comfortable position where you have control over the crucible and tongs/handle. Pour slowly and when mould is full, have a container ready to take the excess tin, even just a dish dug into the dirt will do (not ideal obv). Go slow and be patient, tin melts very low so you'll have plenty of time to work.make sure you work in an open space, move your gear outside if you have to. Make sure NOTHING can knock, trip, bump you etc. Before starting any heat source do a cold run, then do it again and make sure everything goes smoothly. If you can get the metal to around 350-400C it will give you enough time to work and won't shrink too much, but the shrinkage likely won't be visible since it will be on the back anyway. Think about everything you so before doing it. Go over anything that could cause a problem., break down the process and analyse each part. Its quite simple, its just making something to hold your crucible, picking it up and walking 2m away and pouring it. Very little danger at all if thought about and prepared properly, even with makeshift equipment. For safety reasons, its best to just add all of your tin before starting the heat, removes risks of trapping air while loading metal. There shouldn't be any slag if the tin is clean but if there is, you can put the crucible on a steel plate in some sans, use a spoon and scoop the slag out into the sand. Make sure the crucible is firmly on the ground. Make sure any spill that may occur won't land on concrete, this might mean placing things in a steel dish or covering ground in sand Think about what your doing, at any point in Your dry run if metal were to spill would it land on you or run on to you? If so, change the route and method until it doesnt SAFETY AGAIN: go over everything in your head and think about it several times. Pouring metal is dangerous, but proper preparation and thought process makes the risk very minimal, especially for small amounts. Don't be scared of it otherwise error can occur, don't be complacent either. It's a very simple basic operation for what your doing and very achievable. Other.people might preach about the dangers and tell you not to, theyre wrong, theyve seen too many idiots do things worng and assume that about everyone new. With proper thought and preparation its not very dangerous. Im assuming what your making is only a couple inches in diameter and for what your planning greensand/ DIY petrobond will do. Delft clay could be used but its drtail isn't needed for something that doesn't have high detail to begin with. I may have missed something, im sure others will pick up on it if I did, I'll say more once you answer those first question. Sorry for the long rant but for something like this it's imperative you understand what your doing and why, you need to be thinking about your method and understanding it, not blindly following someone elses As for inserting the copper wire, I would personally try to insert it into the sand at a angle so when finished it would be coming out of the tin from the centre, but for your first I would do what youre doing. Also you should add your location in your profile so others nearby can help.

Same thing happened to my dad, he bought a DeWalt tool and it was very cheap because it came with no battery, but there also a deal on to redeem a battery with the purchase anyway. So he did it online and 4 months later it still hadn't arrived (2 week delivery time) so he rang them and asked and they sent another and then a couple weeks later his first showed up so he got a second battery. $300 batteries too (~$200 USD)

Like you say a chunk of steel is a chunk of steel. But from China you never know it may well secretly be cast iron, or have hidden air pockets or faulty welds etc. There's a serious lack of quality control over there, for example many fans from China have motors made of aluminium which is painted to look like copper. Also back in the 1800s british steel was among the best in the world, if not the best. The germans also had the highest quality gunsmiths swordsmithing etc. But even then britian was close and mass production of railway is different to small fine pieces. Even here in Australia if you find old abounded railways in the bush theres a chance it'll be britsh steel, i have somewhere an old railway clip with sheffield stamped on it. So comparing that to China really isn't fair, but still, like you said a steel chunk is a steel chunk now matter where and will work regardless.

I've been very busy with rowing (4:30am-5:30pm) and so have taken a while to respond, but it also means that I forgot to remove my test subject piece of scrap mild steel and it has been submerged for 5 days nowhere are three, rusty scrap metal, 5 days submerged scrap and my WI 12hr submerged here is a closeup of the two scrap metals. The soaked steel does have a small amount of minute pitting, though I think it's a mix of pitting from rust and the solution. (The original steel was rustier that this comparison but i don't have a perfectly matching piece) the pits are ~0.3-0.9mm wide, very minimal, whereas on the WI they are much larger and varying.i have applied a light coat of rust prevention to prevent flash rust* You can see that along the length of the handle there are varying degrees of corrosion. Before submerging i knew the handle itself was WI because I could very clearly see different parts of it had obvious layers/grain(like woodgrain) and you can see some parts of the handle are quite corroded whereas others are relatively smooth. I suspect this is due to some areas (more visible layers) having more of the silicate impurities and slightly layers. The end in the last photo was slightly more rusty so that may have contributed somewhat to heavier pitting. The head however, it did jot have huge rust pitting before the soaked, and now it does, I can also see areas with folds where it's reveals it too is WI. Unfortunately my camera can't get a good picture on the head but the pitting is a different shape (and larger) to that on the steel (which was soaked for 10x as long). So I definitely think it has an adverse effect on the wrought iron slag layers. this is the only before photo i have unfortunately, cropped from a larger so its lower quality. edit* ignore last photo, post is glitchesd and every time i delete it, it reappears

I tried this formula a couple days ago and used 99.99% pure anhydrous citric acid from a chemical supplier and used baking soda instead of washing soda (cant get washing soda), still used his ratio for baking soda. And i first tested in on some old rusty sheet steel and it took a lot longer than his 30min, took about 12hours to fully remove the rust. Not sure why, whether the rust was deeper or the baking soda made a difference(don't see why it would). It didn't damage the steel or pit it though which is great. After I determined the time needed I placed the screw head/handle of a vice im restoring in the HEV to clean the inside where i can't reach with any tools. I left it overnight for about 11 hours and in the morning it came out like this Its not really visible in the phito but it's actually made of wrought iron, the screw and the handle. The HEV seemed to have a wierd effect which left it like it was pitted, but the pitting seemed squarer rather than round, if that makes sense. I don't know how it works but I think it must have somehow dissolved the silica/impurities in the WI, as some areas on the handle were perfectly fine while others were worse off. Again not really visible in the photo but it had a really wierd shiny crystalline look to it. Im not super bothered as I didn't place the actual screw in the mix so it's fine and I was going to paint the head anyway, just need to figure something out with the handle. Putting this here so people know that before using this, I would be careful if you have WI, and test your solution on any leftover WI before putting your piece in, or, just don't put WI in at all

I've never tried anything like this myself but as an idea maybe if you attached a nut you could then heat it and bend by gripping the not, so as to nut damage the threads

Well in the end it doesnt really matter if it is or not, looks really nice though. If it bleeds it might make the spotted gum look interesting as well. Either way it looks really nice

Its a bit late, but Jono if that wood is kwila, its probably going to bleed a lot. I don't where you sourced it -whether it's been exposed to enough rain- but fresh kwila used in decking or weather boards bleeds a ridiculous amount. I was building a sandbox from kwila and just applying pva glue it bled into and the glue turned red. Not sure if oil stops it not but it's something to be aware of.

"A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter." British pints are different to American pints, so 5 pommy gallons would in fact be 50 pounds. I imagine quite a few brits have ordered a pint in an american pub and been somewhat ticked off

I was reading back through your earlier posts and mentioned wanting a barr metal protected look, without paint. Im currently restoring a leg vice of my own and after wire brushing I used wd40 to stop it from rusting and when ready I decgreased it and cleaned with microfibre cloth and metho to remove all dust &residue. I then coated it in a product called "penetrol" its pretty good, it's some mix of oils that sets and leaves a protective coating designed for sealing away metal to prevent further rust. Doesnt really affect texture of the metal either and has a nice finish. Im painting mine with enamel as well for extra protection, but I would recommend using penetrol or similiar products, rather than plain oil/grease Not the best photo but it shows the finish. Good luck Edit* I live in brisbane and its ridiculously humid here and penetrol has worked flawlessly for my dad's truck.

Very cool and interesting to learn how this stuff started, funny coincidence with the felt I suppose. I'll look into the ingredients and ratios of it and might try making some brunswick green because I happen to have some ammonium chloride that I bought, 2kg, for an experiment in displacing the Ca/Na cations in bentonite to make home-made bentone

Is annealing not heating it up and letting it cool slowly to relieve internal stress? I've never worked with silver so I can belive that quenching it might somehow soften it but is it still called annealing when working with silver? (Or maybe jewellery -gold&silver- its called annealing) im not sure if the terminology with silver is different or not. Also how can an alloy age at room temperature? How are the particles able to move and disperse at room temperature, are they not locked solid in place? Mind blowing stuff

I've never heard of a corn forge before but its cool to know its been done. Would some of the corn turn into popcorn if it was around the edges of the forge?

Maybe it is related to the felt, but going completely off a guess but i think the name brunswick green is related to the brunswick rifle, a muzzle loading rifle from brunswick germany, and the british rifleman wore a dark green, probably where brunswick green came from. Also probably where pool/billiards brunswick felt got its name

Doubt it related to to the stew, I think Brunswick is a place somewhere is germany, maybe the stew came from there? I definitely won't be forging everyday, I'll also use it for other things when I'm not using the forge but it won't be getting daily use. But it does have a coat of penetrol on the jaws so that should stop the light spot rust, though if it does rust it wont be hard to clean off with steel wool. And I think wd40 would be fine on the jaws

Called Brunswick green, thought the paint is slightly different to actual Brunswick, its meant to be a tad darker. Thanks for the grease advice, I'll buy some light mechanical oil for the screw, good to have anyway, and I ill put BLO on the other contact areas (hinge, around screwbox for washers etc.) Obv not the jaws though

Im in west end. I've never been to daisy hill, though I've gone for a few walks in the bushland next to it, nice place

Came apart easily with no rust or damage to the threads, just a little gunk. Thanks for the advice on the light oil, will do. Boiled linseed the kind of oil you're refferring to? Currently tied up with other things but I've only got a little to go and am in the process of painting it with enamel paint, will put a photo in when I'm finished of the final product. That's it so far, underneath the paint is a coat of penetrol, a rust prevention coating meant for underneath paint. Supposedly it seals it off so no oxygen can get in and further rust. My dad recommended it so I figured why not

Better add my name to lost. Rab up here in brissy. Been melting and casting woth my brother for a few years, and making diy projects and hitting metal heated up in my dads barbecue since I was little