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@aubreybuilds it's red pine tar pitch- hard and brittle like clay at room temp, soft as warm tootsie roll at 120°f or so, you keep it hot while setting up, warm while youf working work, and cool to release

@solidgameent I can try to upload a video on this for you, but to answer your question and for an option- your clipper seems to have been hardened along it's entire length- and that hardness is at or past the hardness of the drill bits. With many of my blades I anneal (soften) the steel surrounding the edge but keep the edge itself hard. The entire blade doesn't need to be hard sometimes, just the edge. So I get a expendable rag and get it soaking wet and wrap it around or up against the edge. I then take a torch and heat from the furthest point from the edge and watch the steel change colors. It goes from light yellow, to brown, to purple, to blue, to Grey, heat until the area you need to drill is grey or even glowing a little bit- but keep that edge cool. Let it air cool for about 20-30 min, do NOT quench. This technique will have softened the steel of the handle while keeping the edge hard. If the edge was ruined it would be obvious because there would be color on that part of the steel When drilling you have to go slow with pressure so I always recommend 1/8" cobalt alloy bits.

@vanguardsmithing7501 and you just received another follow. Thank you, my man. I am a certified fastener specialist and do engineering support for fastening systems so I have been through all the metallurgy classes and annealing, quench/temper, electro-plating, hot & cold forging, etc. And I absolutely love this stuff, but actually using the annealing process (outside of some different hardened fasteners to get rid of the brittle and bring back some ductility) I have never used it in a real world application as such, so thanks again. I am excited to give this a whirl.

@solidgameent you're welcome! If you are nervous about doing it right try it out first on a butter knife or some scrap so you can see the changes and get familiar with it first, doesn't have to be a hardened steel just a steel to heat up keeping other parts cool

@potatoniccals8867 ive done two alice into Madness blades actually, I used a rat tail handle design, with two solid pieces of 6"x1/4"x1.5" long brass, cutting a relief down the middle of each, shaping and epoxy on the handle, then drew the design with a acrylic paint pen, soak in ferric chloride checking every 15-30 min for 3 hours? Carefully brushing away oxides forming, touching up paint if needed till the relief pops, that all being said xD is possible to shapea brass tube, fill, it and use a similar technique, or make two halves and join then into a handle with this technique

th-cam.com/users/shortsUlqTsH7PQ0s?si=aTi0oAEXJvGjGCA6

For cosplay any metal on weapons could get the weapon banned, the difference being wearing metal vs carrying metal, in order to get the look of the blade for cons I would make the handle out wood, and use a dremel to carve the relief and Design, but it's just for Cosplay photoshoots you can use whatever material you want xD (Linked a video of what the acid relief looks like Or check my Playlist)

@@vanguardsmithing7501 Thank you so much for your answer! I will definetly look into it more and maybe try both ways :) I do work a lot in metal but mostly in a very small scale (goldsmith) so this will be a nice challenge!! I have never seen acid relief before and it looks so fun, I definetly have to try. Thank you again!

I heat it up to where you move the torch away and the copper turns darker with oxides, maybe soak it a few secs past that then quench in water. You can let air cool as well but it's not necessary. You can get a but if red glow in the copper of you are really paranoid about it being annealed as far as it can but that risks melting it as well so a few seconds after the darker oxides appear in the surface, then dunk into room temp water.

Yes it does, though you may have to worry about the solder on your lantern, the annealing is 600-800°F and solder typically around 400°F, the solder can typically be seen near joints and can be subtle. You can put a damp rag on the area with solder to keep it from heating up (I so it with blades all the time) but it will keep up to an 1" of material from heating up to the right temp. Be careful though the rag will be hot but if soaking wet won't catch on fire quickly- I'll see if I can do a video for you this week on it

@@vanguardsmithing7501 Thank you kindly I was thinking about that this afternoon!

Haha I'm glad it was a nice surprise! I was worried the video was a bit long (been doing a lot of short form video) but for my youtube videos I try to show as much as I can, as fast as I can while still being able to follow along x3 I was lucky enough to be able to film their reaction x3

@@vanguardsmithing7501I thought the video was a great length!

Yes I'm doing this myself with a hammer and chisel :)

Wewt!

Your main issue while bending pipe is to keep it from collapsing the pipe itself, just make sure you use a pipe bender as well to keep from kicking the pipe

Alphonso head kills my neck, but it sits like a hat, hopefully this one is nicer lol

I know right :D always loved the character!

My wife suggested that! I think we are doing some beadwork but accessorizing isn't my strong suit, she did some amazing beadwork with her Alloy from Horizon. We wanted to give it an indigenous feel (with my own touch with my metal tooling) so I hope you like what we end up with xD

@@vanguardsmithing7501 I do!! It's absolutely incredible

It's still in preliminary shaping, getting the basic shapes together at this stage, still have a long way to go, some of it atm is held on with tape 😅

It's not finished in the slightest yet 😅 still have 20 hours or so of work 😮

Thank you! The fabric portion was made over I think 3 weeks but I got the brass work done in a fever pitch in 9 days, the last of which the moment I was done the exhaustion hit lol

Np! Glad it helped! 😀

I love cooking with it so much 😭 but love eating it more xD

Same! I only measure in heads of garlic, no matter how small the meal the minimum is one head

Thank you! It's such a long process but I always love it when I see it all come together ❤

Rapid quenching effects carbon steel with the formation of martensite crystals, but with copper, brass, aluminium rapid quenching does not effect the softening effects, you do need to hit that critical range of heat but don't need to wait the 10- 15 minutes for it to air cool

Haha that's why I made the video xD tried to make the video I needed as I was researching it myself

Haha I love being able to low key throw him in vids xD he's 10 years old now :) love the way metal ages it's why I work with it lol

XD is that who was lurking behind me 😂?

Thank you! I haven't been homeless but I have been dirt poor, a little seasoning or type favorite spice can go a long way to make it feel like a meal

Quenching the rod does nothing but cool the metal after you annealed/softened the metal, after you make your bend in order to harden the metal again you need to hammer the metal against a metal surface or vice jaws to compress and work harden the area to make it hard again. You have to hammer the entire area you affected with the heat

You want to aneal it fully usually for wear, as if it's stiff bending it to get it on and off can tear the metal, if it just slips on then it can be harder tho

Currently, not presently. Presently means pretty soon, or in a little while. Currently means now. You could also say "at present" to mean now. This is where a lot of people get mixed up.

Haha I have competed at AX twice and got the judge award both times but I'm not sure when ill compete with this, maybe when I get the similar scale Sokka armor, with Wolf 🐺 helm, fur and plate with tribal hammerwork

@@vanguardsmithing7501 Oh damnnn, u go get it girl! Show the finial product when your cosplay is finish lol

@@Kay-ol1ye will keep the updates coming :) My wife only gets the best from me xD we could've done it in leather but I wanted to go nuts with brass

@@vanguardsmithing7501 Lol, I honestly don't know that character she's cosplaying but it always is awesome to see a badass cosplayer. That actually sounds quite expensive, it does look like brass would make the better appearance for that type of cosplay. I'm sure it will come out fantastic!

@@Kay-ol1ye I have a brass costume I made for a production 13 years ago, it looks better now than when I made it, it ages really well :) This is about $250 in materials atm but I'm not done yet, and it's a very stylized version of the Kyoshi Warriors from Avatar the last airbender, highly recommended series :D (the cartoon not the live action)

Thank you! :D 17 years of practice is making this go really well xD

I use propane and maap gas, both can be found at the hardware store- the propane is blue and the maap is yellow, they work relatively the same and both work but the maap burns a little bit hotter

And it's just propane/maap alone, no oxy set up though it would speed up the heat process

😂😂😂😂😂

At this point is not a question of if I can do it xD but how much of it can I get done by then lol focusing on the body first

I worked on my metal Alphonse for 36 hours straight into con, hopefully I don't need to do that for this build xD

It will leave your skin green if the copper is in direct contact with your skin, but by sealing it with Renaissance Wax, clear nail polish, a clear coat polyurethane, or other sealant the copper won't interact with your skin :)

Mineral oil does work, my favorite is Camilla Oil and Olive oil but don't use vegetable oil as it oxidizes and turns brown and gummy. As for how often it depends on a lot of factors and how you store it. Check how the oil maintains before each use or once a week for a month (if seldom used) to see if you applied too much, to little, or if any rust has appeared

I've had a few mentors but I get a lot of what I know from TH-cam first, then deep dive forums that are hard to find, then thousanda of hours of both work and testing xD When I make a vid I try including all I wish I knew when first looking xD if you have more questions in going to be doing some more vids coming up :) just let me know

@@vanguardsmithing7501 awesome! I’m making copper bracelets now, and the video I’m using, the guy uses ZERO words, so I’ve just been following his steps of heating and dipping, but I have no idea WHY. Ya know? Lol. So I’ve been just trying to get a feel for how the metal reacts to different conditions, but this explains everything perfectly. I’m gonna have to watch the rest of your vids, but I’m about to start working bronze and another video explain the properties of that metal would be awesome

Thanks! :D it's funny on most social media it's vids of melting tar that everyone loves with 100k+ xD I'm happy you all for to see this piece :)

Haha I live in Los Angeles, and while this took more thought and art- with mall traffic, regular traffic, and looking around at multiple stores this might have taken less time, but felt less like work xD so it's a win lol

Thanks! :D I did it in about 2.5 hours, it could use another 2 if I wanted to go crazy and refine it xD but this was all in one pass and I was happy with it :)