On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:13:06 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Muso
wrote:

On Apr 26, 10:34*am, Peter W. Rowe
wrote:
On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:16:05 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Muso
wrote:


Hello again, Peter. On the hardness scale, I confess that I do not
know where either tin or zinc lie. Since I would not want to be at
the receiving end of an arrowhead made from either tin or zinc,
though, I will not bother to look it up just yet. I would like very
much to know about your steel toolmaking experience. I can buy small
pieces of stainless steel at my local hobby shop, by the way.


I wouldn't wish to be hit with an arrowhead of any kind, frankly. But were I to
be making arrows, I'd wish to make them so they could be fired more than once or
twice. Though I've not tested this, I'd guess that you'd only get a very
limited number of uses (maybe only a single use) from arrowheads made of such
metals before they either were broken on impact, or warped, bent, and otherwise
made unusable. Again, I might be wrong, but that's what I'd expect...


Again, I have full confidence that a tin arrowhead would be very
deadly, to the degree that I will not even bother to test the idea.

:-)



Peter, I have thought about building a crossbow for target practice,
and I think I might do so eventually. Of course, a spear could be
launched by a similar larger aparatus. In fact, I remember a
television program about an enormous crossbow.

yeah, I remember that show. A Roman seige weapon, as I recall, using taut wound
ropes for the springs... Discovery channel or maybe Military channel, I
think.. Same show at various times has built trebuchets, and tried to duplicate
greek fire, among other ancient weapons


Here we go again, Peter. I would like very much to hear about your
experience in working with steel to make tools and knives. I have no
experience in either of these areas, by the way.

Steels are fun to work with. I'm not making my own steel, mind you, just making
things from it. As a goldsmith, one often finds the need for things like stamps
or punches or small forming tools to suit a given task. One can either modify
an existing tool or make one from a piece of scrap steel. Old Files, for
example, are good quality steel. So is commercially made drill rod, or in a
pinch, even concrete nails make decent small punches when needed. You need the
usual sorts of files, abrasives, and other jewelers tools to work and shape
steel like any metal. If it's hardened, you need to anneal it first in most
cases, then reharden and temper it after, if it needs it. Steels offer another
easy way to shape them, by heating red hot, at which time they become very
plastic, and easily shaped and formed with a hammer. That's basic blacksmithing
of course, and at this sort of basic level, needs little in the way of skill or
equipment. A torch to heat the metal with, a hammer, and something to hammer
against. Anvils are nice, but not necessary for small work. For other sorts of
tools, some machining may be required. Again, steels are among the most
machineable metals. Commerciually available cutting tools, from files to lathe
tools, generally are designed off the shelf for cutting steels, and any decent
machine tool, from lathes, to drill presses, mills, shapers, etc, can be used.
The big limitation of steels, compared to various non-ferrous metals we commonly
use, is the melting point, which often means that actually melting steels and
pouring ingots or castings, is usually beyond the average home workshop. Though
it Can be done if one really needs to. Steels themselves are usually too high
melting for home equipment, but cast iron melts a little lower, and with effort,
a homebuilt foundry furnace like the Gingery can be made to do it. Not easy,
though. That is the reason so many home workshop metal workers needing a
casting do it in aluminum, or like you, zinc based metals. If the require part
needs some rigidity, but not high strength (which can be compensated for many
times simply by making the part bigger and thicker so the zinc is strong
enough), then zinc may be just fine. Personally, when I need such parts, I'm
more comfortable using bronze, but that's just because I've got the stuff, and
have more experience with it. And I know it's strong enough, whereas the zinc
based alloys might not be, depending on what I need to make. Yes, I know it's
more costly than zinc.


Peter, I see that you know about the ladies! Just kidding :-)

Hah. I wish. Single. Never married. Some would say that's good. I find it a
bit lonely. But I have cats...


Yes, the Gingery fellows rave about Petrobond, though to be used
effectively, it needs to be muled, and the price of feeding and
housing a mule nowadays is very expensive. No, seriously, iron
casting has to be done with water-based sand anyway, otherwise known
as green sand, so I will be staying with green sand.


The advantage of oil tempered sand is simply that it doesn't dry out. (duh.)
Green sand needs a bit more working to make it ready to use, since the water
evaporates. that's just as much trouble as preparing petrobond, in my
experience. But note that I've only used sand casting for small items, with
small molds. At that size, working the sand to prepare it, of either type, is
simple.

So are you saying you're planning to try and cast iron? How are you going to
melt it? That's a whole lot hotter than your zinc, or for that matter, hotter
than any of the metals I normally melt and cast, with the exception of platinum.
And Handling those temps is not trivial...

Peter