Has any blacksmith out there hammered out a bell, (cow bell) out of steel sheet? If so, did you coat the steel with brass?  Could you describe your process?

BELL MAKER

Leaving aside historical methods, you can get a thin layer of brass on a steel piece by heating it and scrubbing it with a brass brush. At the correct heat, a small amount of brass will melt off the brush and adhere to the steel.

Here's an example from the Ukrainian armorsmith Vyacheslav Perepelitsa (who, interestingly, uses a rotary brush mounted in an electric drill to great effect):

 

I learned a little interesting tidbit about brass brushing recently. The heat to do it at is the same temp that burns off a Sharpie mark. 

For those outside the USA, i do not know if they are available to you but Sharpies are a brand of marker here in the states. 

That's quite interesting. I've heard about the trick for estimating the correct forging temperature for aluminum, where you rub it with a pine stick and see what kind of mark it leaves: brown needs more heat, black is just right. I wonder if anyone's compared the stick trick with the Sharpie trick to see how they compare.

Yes, I know and have applied this wire brush method, 

For the Vesterheim contest, the brass plating must be the traditional process. The bell is shown in the book Mastermyr Find, a 1000 year old find of viking blacksmith tools and artifacts.

This is what I know: 1, clean the steel of mill scale in any contamination. 2, prep-air a mixture of clay, horse dung and straw. Nead all air pockets out. Flatten like pizza doe. 3, Cut pieces of cartridge brass and place on the doe. 4, Place the doe over the bell and let dry. 5, build a huge, hot fire that will heat the bell/doe to red heat over 18,00F to melt the brass. 6, roll the bell to distribute the brass whole heating and while cooling. 7, Once cool, break the clay mix off to reveal the brass coated bell. 8, Buff the brass to ma bright shine.

What I need is to find a blacksmith who has done this operation. Nothing is better than hands on experience to eliminate problems.

 

 

I have no information or experience to offer, just the encouragement to take some pictures of the stages once you embark upon this journey. Good luck & look forward to hearing that your bell does well in the Vesterheim contest!

--Larry

Sorry no experience here.

You are basically talking about brass plating through a wicking action.

You are heating the iron and through capillary action when the brass becomes molten it will travel to the more porous iron. (wrought iron)

This may sound inconsequential but are you sure they were using brass?

I would bet it was bronze. Bronze is tin and copper. Tin is basically solder.

I have never tried this before but when you melt brass the zinc throws crazy green sparks. I don't know what that might do to the "doe".

The Summer 2025 Hammer's Blow includes a review of Homemade Padlock II and the Ancient Art of Forge Brazing by Thomas Boucher.  The review has a short description of the process covered in the book, which includes a clay shroud and sounds like the same process you have in mind.  

looking up now

Lost me at kneading horse dung... 

I do not know if this helps but a while back, maybe a year or 2 Tjorborn Ahman did a video where he made 2 oil lamps. He made them from tubing and to seal the hole he made 2 plugs that he used copper to solder into place. The copper did the capillary action thing and the 2 came out copper plated. 

I am with Larry though, i would love to see the process.  

I believe other cultures use clay.

They only add straw if they are doing a large piece for reinforcement.

Haven't done plating, but I've brazed pieces together with brass powder and brass rod, used the brass brush method, and done some brass casting. Oxidation is always an issue when working with copper alloys such as bronze or brass.

By the time the Mastermyr chest was made, the Vikings had a high zinc brass that was nice and shiny but more of a pain to work with than the earlier stuff with a higher lead content. That said, it was my understanding that the Mastermyr bells were done with forge brazed copper strips over sheet iron.

Coating it in clay might be enough, but in this case, I would tend to suspect that you might need flux to get a good brazing. If you're particularly dedicated to doing it with historical fluxes you would probably want to use ash, crushed seashells, or fine silica sand. The ash from the horse dung and straw might suffice as is, but I don't know if I would rely on it.

On 2/19/2026 at 4:59 AM, JHCC said:

Here's an example from the Ukrainian armorsmith Vyacheslav Perepelitsa

Well, that's one way to make a rivet in a hurry...cool build.