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[Arx]

I somehow doubt that people are going to brandish a reproduction gladius the same way they would brandish a shiny silver looking weapon.

You've clearly never met me.
I second decorative stuff, though. I would still like to get into that, along with armour.

Also, I can't find anything about aluminium casting being a health hazard. None of the hobbyist sites mention it, and the vapour doesn't come up as a threat on the Wikipedia page. Plus, apparently a healthy person can likely handle up to 40 milligrams per kilogram of body mass, per day.

If the goal is to forge a sword, why bother casting? You need to hammer it anyway to give it structural integrity. And getting metal hot enough to work is easier than getting it hot enough to cast. Finding steel that gets malleable with charcoal fire should be doable. If rebar is like this (no clue if it is), a thick piece of it would be perfect for hammering out a sword.

Rebar is of highly variable quality even within a single piece. I do not recommend it.

[DJ]

Well, the first sword you smith isn't going to be of high quality regardless f the material used. Rebar is dirt cheap and sold everywhere, so it should be good for practice, unless it's so bad it falls apart in the process of forging.

[wierd]

rebar is almost always steel, and forging steel with a hammer is very unrecommended. You want a mild iron to work with ideally, with low carbon and low sulfur. the forging process adds carbon, which hardens the metal. this is why already hardened metal is not recommended. rebar can often be harder than both the hammer and the anvil.

using round stock (not tubestock!) or square stock in either very mild steel, or low carbon iron is vastly more pleasing to work.

bronze has 2 phases of production, when dealing with blade manufacture. Like copper, it hardens when struck with a hammer while cold worked. this means that the cast part should be a blank that is thicker and narrower than the piece will be when finished, then hammered cold with hardies and appropriate hammers and mallets to shape and control the metal as it deforms and work hardens.

the OP will not need a full forge to work with the bronze, but will to work with iron or steel. instead, he will just need the smelter, the blank mold, and an annealing oven/furnace. He will not need a bellows/blower, or a full forge.

[GiglameshDespair]

rebar is almost always steel, and forging steel with a hammer is very unrecommended. You want a mild iron to work with ideally, with low carbon and low sulfur. the forging process adds carbon, which hardens the metal. this is why already hardened metal is not recommended. rebar can often be harder than both the hammer and the anvil.

using round stock (not tubestock!) or square stock in either very mild steel, or low carbon iron is vastly more pleasing to work.

bronze has 2 phases of production, when dealing with blade manufacture. Like copper, it hardens when struck with a hammer while cold worked. this means that the cast part should be a blank that is thicker and narrower than the piece will be when finished, then hammered cold with hardies and appropriate hammers and mallets to shape and control the metal as it deforms and work hardens.

the OP will not need a full forge to work with the bronze, but will to work with iron or steel. instead, he will just need the smelter, the blank mold, and an annealing oven/furnace. He will not need a bellows/blower, or a full forge.

Mild steel.

It's what I worked with.

My forge is literally built out of old car parts. My anvil is a anchor weight, smoothed down. Actually, that raises the question...


Tonnot98, can you explain exactly what sort of furnace/forge you have? What have you got at your disposal?

[tonnot98]

I have nothing, really. I was planning on going to the store to buy some stuff the make the furnace that you told me about.

A teacher recently gave me over 200 aluminum can tabs, so now I just need quite a few more cans and tabs and stuff and then I'll hopefully have enough material to cast a sword.

What would you guys suggest I make the mold from? I was thinking of buying a plastic sword to base the mold on.

[wierd]

The materials that you *can* use (why feel that you are locked into a specific method?), depend on the metal you want to work with.

If your metal has good flow, (Like molten bronze does), then you can cast VERY intricate pieces with a plaster mold.
If your metal requires a high temperature (STEEL! ZOMG, STEEL), then you are going to need something that has a very high refractory index, and that usually means a silicate mineral of some sort-- Such as sand casting, or even the use of a clay investment made of bentonite (Cheap stuff cat litter.)

In your case, if you are going to be working with bronze, well bisqued cat litter molds that are simple pour molds would work well.  Again, for bronze to have good strength, it needs to be hammered. That means pouring a blank, then hammering it.  Bronze is fairly soft, so the hammer does not need to be special, and a wooden anvil is perfectly OK. (Such as a tree stump). Wooden hammers are frequently used when doing coopersmithing, which is basically what hammered bronze is.

Aluminium is usually not worked with a hammer. Instead, parts are usually milled from it, then heat treated, then shot peened to give a hard outer surface. Unless you want to get a manual milling machine (Like a bridgeport), your options for working with pure aluminum are going to be quite limited.

For bronze smithing, you will need a smelter, an annealing oven, molds, an anvil of some sort (Can be a good smooth stump), hammers, hardies (Tools for working the metal-- like punches and shaped knobs and the like), tongs, an apron, and gloves. Eyewear is a given.

For blacksmithing (Working with steel or iron) you will need a full forge, which consists of a coal burning platform with attached bellows or blower, hammers, hardies, a steel anvil, tongs, a clenching bucket, gloves, an apron, and eyeware. Blacksmithing does NOT get hot enough to melt the iron/steel. You would need a blast furnace and crucible for this.

[Arx]

A teacher recently gave me over 200 aluminum can tabs, so now I just need quite a few more cans and tabs and stuff and then I'll hopefully have enough material to cast a sword.

The depressing thing about melting down alumium cans is that they are very low in volume, and because they're so thin they oxidise madly unless you can submerge them in a pre-existing stock of molten aluminium. You'll be skimming off as much slag as actual product, especially using the tiny tabs.

For the mould, a mix of beach sand and ground cat litter or other bentonite clay works well. Cursory research suggests ten percent bentonite by volume, and then add water slowly and mix until it holds a bit of a shape when you squeeze it in your hand. If it won't hold a shape, add a little more clay.

[Phmcw]

I THINK but don't quote me on this, that the scare about aluminium come from the fact that for a time, we thought that since there was more aluminium in the brain of Alzeimher's patient, aluminium may cause Alzeimher's. It was since found false, but peoples were wary around aluminium for a while, and righly so while it was an hypothetis.

[wierd]

A teacher recently gave me over 200 aluminum can tabs, so now I just need quite a few more cans and tabs and stuff and then I'll hopefully have enough material to cast a sword.

The depressing thing about melting down alumium cans is that they are very low in volume, and because they're so thin they oxidise madly unless you can submerge them in a pre-existing stock of molten aluminium. You'll be skimming off as much slag as actual product, especially using the tiny tabs.

For the mould, a mix of beach sand and ground cat litter or other bentonite clay works well. Cursory research suggests ten percent bentonite by volume, and then add water slowly and mix until it holds a bit of a shape when you squeeze it in your hand. If it won't hold a shape, add a little more clay.

The problem with oxidation is something I mentioned earlier, which is why I advised to use a neutral gas in the smelter. One that would be fairly easy to use would be sulfur hexafluoride, which is heavier than air. (Much heavier than air-- like the OPPOSITE of how helium is light.) It is chemically inert, and non-toxic. A simple retaining wall around the smelter's pot to hold in the gas, followed by filling, will keep oxygen away from the melting aluminium.