Posted by bruce paul fink on February 09, 1998 at 07:31:09:

In Reply to: Re: Topic:Bronze recipes posted by paul b. on February 06, 1998 at 20:52:33:

Creating your own bronze recipes is no easy mater and if you have any questions at all about the theory and practice it indicates you had better just buy the alloys. Pure copper is quite hard to melt and pour successfully as it has characteristics that make it worlds different than say Everdure which is 95-96% copper. The addition of just a few percent make it a whole different item. You might like to check out the comments above on Eutectic combinations above in: "Topic: Silver Solder and Alloys Simplified" This covers bronzes as well.

Tin is also one of the lower melting metals so combining it with very hot copper would be a risky and inexact situation requiring far more expertise than it is likely any home foundry could muster. I pour Everdue as a favorite bronze but avoid pure copper melting characteristics even though the pouring temperature difference is only approx. 150 degress more.

I recommend you play it safe, be economical and get regulated results and buy the ingot even if that requires you to spend lots of extra time to locate it.

Next question would also be ... why do you want that specific formulation? There are other bell bronzes available. Good luck and if you find anything else out we would love to hear about it.

Early chinese bronzes used some amazing formulations and some required reheating and cooling 20 to 30 times with additional metals added before the exact metal was to their satisfaction (I assume slag and oxidation losses had to be major).

bpfink@neca.com

Follow Ups:

• Re: Topic:Bronze recipes angerald 9/16/98 (0)