Hello,
I need to bend a musicians triangle. The advice that is given in my books is to isolate the heat by using a torch. I have no torch.
Any advice is welcome. I would rather not fumble about too much on this one, as is my usual way. Of course I do have ideas, but I am not very experienced.

Robert Hanford

The only advise I was given once is to make the three legs all slightly different in length.  Has to do with the sound of the ring, I think.  Ask around for someone who has a forge or torch.

What heat source do you have?

I'd mark with chalk where you want to bend, heat the area, then quench if needed to isolate the area (can use a cup, old cat food tin, watering can to pour the water) Then either bend using the bick of the anvil if you have one or clamp an old bit of inch pipe in a vice and by holding the metal with some pilers, or bending forks if you have one, bend around the radius of the pipe.

the length of the legs will affect the note you get, you would want them different for a fire alarm or dinner gong type of thing but I dont know about for a triangle for a musician, also you would probably want something hardenable and to heat and quench it.

I have some small round stock and may have a go at one this weekend

Building a bending jig would help, and id use somthing with some carbon. I belive Dempsey sugjested putting the gap in the midle of the bottom leg. And to hang it with somthing organic.

stainless steel 1/4" no more than 3/8" dia rod bent on 60 degree angles. nice tones, no heat needed, only a vise to hold the stock while bent cold by hand.

i have a wooded anvil stump. Put a piece of rod down the prichel hole and another down the hardie hole to use as bending forks, Drive then into the wooden stump just enough to make them secure. Heat your triangle stock and dog against one rod and bend against the other. 

Controlling the heated zone is easy to do with a bit of water dribbled from a can.

 

One thing that I have found makes a tremendous difference in the ring of a triangle (I only make big dinner ringers) is to bring the entire thing up to heat after you've bent it.... and then quench it in water.  Mild steel might not harden like carbon steel does, but something is happening there.  Try the same triangle before and after the quench and you'll definitely notice a better tone in the latter.

 

I make mine from half-inch stock, with nine inch legs.  I've never bothered with making the legs different lengths.

 

Also note that the triangle needs to be suspended by a cord and not a metal hook which will interfere with the resonance.

Isolating the heat isn't really necessary if you use a set of bending forks one clamped in the vice, or stuck in the hardie hole, and another to make the bend.  You can also just clamp one leg in the vice, and use a bending fork just past the jaw and swing the triangle around.  If you get a little distortion you can hit it with a hammer on the inside of the triangle, back flat against the face of the anvil...  Leverage, and heat can do a lot.  Then you just need to figure out where to hit it to fix what you don't like.  Sharp consistent bends require a lot of practice with the hammer or specific bending tools or jigs...

Whatever system you choose, ... slip a piece of pipe over the end, to keep the bend "tight", and the legs straight.

Thanks for all your answers!
I completed the triangle last night, it is a 7.5 by 7.5 x 6" triangle, made from a jeep spring.
It is textured all over, and the tone is complex.
I will meet with the musician I made it for today, and decide whether to harden and temper the triangle.

You can tune it by grinding the ends shorter, same as tuning a bell or cymbal by trimming in a lathe. Making all three legs a different length makes it resonate in one note and legs the same length will cause different resonance interference patterns that can cause all kinds of effects from a harmony to a clashing dissonance. (sp?) How and where you harden or normalize or anneal will have effects as well.

 

I've made a number of dinner/door bell triangles and a little dissonance is expected, more clang than the clear note of a musical instrument. Folk want a dinner/door bell to clang and stop. I'm really happy about that, I'm pretty sure it'd take me quite a while to learn to make and tune a musical instrument triangle.

 

I've never used anything more sophisticated than a vise and pipe to bend them, sometimes hot sometimes not. As Smoothbore says a pipe will prevent the rod from curving as it bends, it will isolate the force you apply to the area you need it. If you have an anvil you can slip a leg into the pritchel hole if it fits and use it as your anchor just like a vise.

 

Please let us know how it works out and post a few pics.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

I use coil spring. I believe the higher carbon steels make a nicer ring than mild steel.

I usually break an inch on one side, do a bit of an upset, then slit and drift a hole an eighth or so larger than the parent stock.

then bend the legs and pass the bitter end thru the hole. leave it long and either upset it or scroll it to "give it a bit of motion.

make sure the top bend is such as to allow the bell to hang plumb and square.

this gives your legs 3 different lengths.

you can cut either of the projected ends (below hole, and amount passed thru) to tune yer bell.

it ain't yer run of the mill dinner bell, catches the eye, creates questions (how'd he do that!?) and is pretty fun to make and absolutely unique! oops, just gave away one of them danged ole trade secretes. ;)

I don't seem to be able to edit. most important, don't let the pass thru touch the hole or it will deaden the ring.

That sounds like a nice triangle, where is the picture?

 

When your post appears you have a few hours to edit by clicking the button that appears at the bottom right of the post, just to the left of the other buttons.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

I did have a meeting with the musician today, he liked the triangle, but for a symphonic instrument, we do not want to have a single note, more of a mix of overtones. Also, the thing doesn't hang right. So, I'll try cutting one leg a little bit more and hope to get it balanced so that it hangs straight, perhaps that will help the overtones as well. I will harden it, but I guess I better temper it a little bit so that it is not too brittle.
Thank you for all the good ideas. I think this is probably not going to be the last one I make, I am a musician and know many percussion players.

Don't worry about it being brittle unless you're using really high carbon steel or plan on hitting it with a steel bar or something. Tune the note by adjusting one leg length at a time. when trouble shooting or tuning change only one thing at a time then test and take notes. If you change more than one thing at a time you'll never know what did what.

 

Different strikers will change the tone as well, steel, wood, plastic all have their own flavor. Heck, even different steels hard, vs. mild can make a difference. Then there are different metals, I know bronze and copper have very different sounds than steel strikers.

 

Frosty The Lucky.