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I Forge Iron

making copper cookware


Aaron J. Cergol

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I have made copper soup kettles, copper teapots and a copper frying pan out of large copper pipe (3'' to 5'') that I bought from salvage yards. I paid twice the price that they buying it for. Which is still less than half the price of new copper.
I would split the pipe length ways with a Bosh jig saw, use a weed burner torch, some times 2 weed burner torches on the larger pipe with 1/8'' thick wall to anneal it then pry the split open and hammer it flat. A 5'' pipe gives you a 15'' wide piece of copper by how ever long the pipe is.
Some times you can find short pieces of new pipe in the pile. On old used pipe be sure to cut of any of the ends that have been soldered on, it might be lead solder. Any solder or tin will start to eat deep pits in the copper when it is heated to red hot for annealing.
Don't worry about any discolored pipe with paint or water scale on it, most of it will scale off when annealing, take the rest off with sand paper or wire brush. A cheep pickle I have used is plane salt with vinegar mixed till its slushy. Be sure to get all the black annealing scale off the copper before you start hammering on it or you will pound the scale into the surface.
I use to tin all the stuff that I made with tin that I also got out of the junk yards. In the 70s they were tearing out all the soda fountains in the old drug stores and they were all plumbed with 1/2'' diameter pure tin tubing.

Chuck

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I had two You Tube links bookmarked but have spent twenty minuets looking for them and can't find them. Anyway one was of Turkish coppersmiths working out a large kettle and the other was of Mexican coppersmiths working out a large platter, big hammers those guys were swinging. There was also a video of the Turks tinning a copper cooking pan.

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Biggun- if they were on this coast, you bet I'd be knocken on there door!

I always here great salvage stories from the 70's and 80's decomisioned shipyards.... nowdays seems like the only salvage is sent to china and nobody can cherry pick it first... at least not in my neck of the woods.

I've seen those links on youtube... all good stuff

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  • 12 years later...

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