> Does it become obvious that you have annealed properly when you start
hammering again?  Is it easy to tell when you need to anneal again?

For many alloys, yes. With copper, many silver alloys like sterling, etc, a
little experience makes it very clear when the limit is being reached. When
drawing or hammering, the forces needed change dramatically. These are
considered good to excellent cold workability. Annealing properly takes a little
experience, especially small and thin sections, but the base rule of uniform
dull red heat and drop it in water works well enough for most of the alloys I
worry about. If it is done with air exposure (how many people have an inert or
reducing atmosphere furnace handy?) pickling should be done to remove scale
before further work, or the scale may be driven into the surface.


 I have not seen any red metal alloys (though there likely are some) that
tolerate no cold work at all, under any circumstances. The 360 brass Peter
mentioned is not practical to cold work (in the first handy reference I have to
hand says 360 is poor cold forming), but that does not mean it CAN NOT be. Just
not much without anneal or fracture. I have not done significant cold work--
generally single hit peen to lock a fastener or similar, a little light chasing
on a door escutcheon-- on the bottom of workablility red metals like 360, so I
can't say anything useful if you want to go there. If significant work is
needed, I try to use a material that is at least moderately good for it.
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    On Sunday, August 20, 2017 6:28 AM, Ed Minch  wrote:
 

 

On Aug 19, 2017, at 10:22 PM, Erik Levin via OldTools  wrote:

>  For many red metals, the ballpark of  550C (1000F) is what you want, with a
water quench.


Eric

Does it become obvious that you have annealed properly when you start hammering
again?  Is it easy to tell when you need to anneal again?

Ed Minch