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Ideas for sheet steel


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So I have a bunch of sheet steel laying around, 14ga, 16ga, stuff like that, in both mild and stainless.

What can I do with this stuff other than cut it up cutely and weld into boxes or some mess? Totally out of ideas, and I think it's certainly too thin to properly 'smith'.

Also have a 1" round bar length of 303 stainless, probably 12-14" of it. Wonder if I can cut it into a smaller piece, if it's possible to forge it out at all?

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That 303 stainless can be forged but it takes some doing. I can across a 1" round bar last year. Get it very hot and it will let you know when it's too cool. Also from what I've read it's a air hardening steel so don't bother heat treatment. I made small very rough looking Hardie cutoff out of it and it held up quite well. Just don't miss or you will ding up your hammer. 

Might be good for eating utensils. 

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There is more to this craft than aheatin' and abeatin', although you can get a whole slew of effects with texturing hammers. Decorative punch and chisel work is a good counterpoint to hammer textures.

SS sheet would also make nice: holiday ornaments, necklace pendants, bracelets, wind chimes, garden art pieces.

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Hi I just had a look in my stainless book to make sure I had it correct but the 300 series of stainless steel wont harden by heat treatment though can be hardened by cold working Austenitic Stainless is non magnetic Cheers Beaver

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