Working brass or nickle silver??

[MixonKnives]

I'm a big fan of the Livelys and there style of knife making. I've seen there video many, many times. I'm thinking about making the fittings for my next knife the way they do. My main concern is the silver. I'm sure silver is expensive. So if possible I'd like to use brass or nickle silver and I'd like to know if it works similarlly??

Is it possible to forge while cold? Or do they need to be hot? I tried punching a slot in some brass tonight (1/4"x1"x2") and it split the brass from the slot to one of the ends of the bar stock. I'm wondering if maybe I should have annealed it first??

Also, is there any information about working brass, nickle silver, silver and all those non-ferous alloys out there? anything I can read that'll add to my knowlage??

Thanks alot guys,
Michael

[Shakudo]

i have never seen a need to forge any of the listed metals while hot. there is a little learning curve to cold forging non ferrous metals as to when annealing is needed.something hard to explain and just the feel of the metal tells you when . i'm not familiar with the Lively's so i can't offer any particulars.

[Osprey Guy]

Don't know anything about the "Lively's", so I'll respond as best I can with the hope that it'll at least partly answer your question.

Especially when compared to working with steel, both brass and nickel silver will feel "gummy." I've incorporated both brass and n/s a fair amount in the past for use in my embellishment work, and found that the softer metals were not only very unforgiving (the slightest slip can leave you with a deep cut), but because of the softness of the metals, they are much more difficult to control (when fileworking, carving, etc)....Just way too much "give"...

I've become a major fan of 416SS. Whenever possible I now use 416SS in place of anything that I might otherwise have used n/s in the past...whenever there's a call for a "white" metal. I really like the color (the silver tone feels "rich"), I personally find that it's easy to work (in fact it's probably the single most favorite material, which engravers like to work). I really like the way it "carves"...In fact I'm currently incorporating carved pieces of 416SS as part of the embellishment on a fixed blade I'm making (BTW- it's forged 5160).

Don't know if any of that will help with your question...hope so.


Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!