THE FORGE

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Copper is soft and easily cut. Copper roofing nails are used to hold slates on the roof, largely because they can be cut with a long- flat hook knife when broken slates need to he removed and replaced. Copper clench nails are driven through wood planking of boats, then bent over to hold. when it comes time to
replace a damaged or rotted plank, it's easy to unclench or cut the soft copper.

Copper and brass are soft enough to be hammered cold into ornaments, fittings and fixtures. Copper sheets, plumbing pipe, fittings and nails are sold i hardware stores.

Bronze is harder and needs heat to become malleable. You can get worn machined auto parts of brass and bronze in the scrap pile behind a transmission shop. Bronze is the king of art metals, because it metal casts beautifully and lasts forever That, however, is another story.

The metals we use most are ferrous-alloys of iron and carbon plus other metals, including steel. Most steel we encounter in nails, tailpipes, bars, rods and plates is relatively soft, low-carbon or mild metal that is tough enough, but easy to work. Soft-steel clench nails are used to hold on horseshoes; they can be cut with one tap on a clench tool to remove the shoe. Shoes themselves are of a higher-grade steel, made tough to withstand wear,. but soft enough to be malleable and easily worked by a faster to fit the hoof.

Keep in mind that low carbon steel can not be hardened (with heat and controlled cooling) to make a culling or hammering tool. For that you need medium-carbon steel, as found in hammer heads, or high-carbon steel as found in edged tools. Tool steel is a special high-carbon alloy- that can hold a thin, good cutting edge under heavy use. High-speed tool steel will hold an edge and keep cutting even when friction makes it so hot it glows red.

Stainless steel is hard, so will hold an edge longer than carbon steel, but it is more difficult to sharpen. It contains chromium, which hardens the alloy and corrodes to that familiar reflective sheen the instant it is exposed to air, forming a protective coating over rust-prone iron.

Many kinds of steel in various stock shapes (rods, bars, angles, sheets, hardened nails and bolts) can be found in hardware stores and steelyards The way they were formed, whether cold rolled or hot rolled, influences how they will wear and other characteristics. Different steel is identified by complicated color coding. However, when we're on the farm we use whatever is at hand-mild steel Cot the most part. Any time we're needed a steel for a particular use (a good-tampering) but-not-too-brittle steel for fancy knifemaking. for example), we've been able to get it from catalogs. Or else the steelyard guys or hardware store clerks have had all the resource material and advice needed. (Usually, I use the tool steel in cheap nail removers, pry bars or flat demolition bars that you find for a dollar apiece in bins at mall stores. Much of this steel comes from the Far East and is of uneven quality. But the chickens don't care what quality of steel is in the hasp that keeps the henhouse door closed.)

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