I've been unable to work at my forge for awhile now. Fall chores and work life constantly beckon. However, I was thinking about brass today and I have some questions.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, yes? That being the case, is it dangerous to heat it? How is it forged properly and safely?

Please discuss. :)

I can't tell you how to work brass, but I can agree with you that it is unsafe. My grandfather was a foundryman and used to work with iron, aluminum, brass and just about anything you could cast. He had to stop working brass after getting yellow metal poisoning a couple to times. I would be leary of working brass without some proper instruction, as you wisely are doing. Good luck, and hopefully someone here can give you some pointers.

Some brass alloys can be worked cold to a point, then annealed and worked some more. True bronze (copper and tin) work hardens a lot slower in my experience. I've done repousse' on commercial bronze (really brass, but the zinc content is lower). IIRC, the zinc isn't really a problem until you heat it beyond what you need to anneal.

Jeff

I think it is alot like copper, poison if you are casting, but if you heat and anneal, not much of a problem, if at all. Though bvy no means am I an expert.

Copper is a problem when casting? Wasn't aware of that. It's in most of the alloys people cast. Brass, bronze, sterling silver, etc... What's it do?

Jeff

See the following link for the effects of copper

Woody

http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/hazmap_generic?tbl=TblAgents&id=374

Copper gives off aresenic, when melted.

Copper gives off aresenic, when melted. I was watching thi thing about that Iceman they found, and he was a coper worker(among other things), and they found that out by looking at his hair and seeing the effects of arsenic poisoning.

Wow. Good info.

ONLY ARSENIC CONTAINING COPPER GIVES OFF ARSENIC and you will have difficult time finding any in today's scrap stream.

In the chalcolithic naturally occuring allows of copper and arsenic were preferred because it made for a harder alloy. But that's about 5000 years ago....if you are melting down 5000 year old items you don't have to worry about the arsenic, the archeologists will kill you first!

If you want to worry about toxic contaminants worry about Be as you can find Be-Copper alloys as scrap.

If this does worry you go for plain water pipe and copper wire as both are quite pure plain old copper.

Thomas

Generally speaking, brass is an alloy of copper and other additives, essentially a material used for casting, its grain structure does not easily lend itself to forging, There are I believe forging grade bronzes available commercially.
We have successfully cast objects from brass scrap and aluminium to replace motifs on old ironwork such as rosettes or leaves. sometimes additives are needed to help the brass flow smoother when casting.

How about working the brass? What temps does it work at best? I have an old brass sign that sat on an old cash register and the owner wants me to straighten it out. It is very twisted and bent. Does it work well say around 750F or is it best to work cold then anneal? This stuff seems kind of brittle soI would imagine it would have to be heated first and I know brass has a fairly low melting temp.

Fred