Making An Impossible Material!

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[@EdOfTheNorth]

Hydrochloric acid dip to clean your iron always makes things weld better. Also, your iron needs to be the same temp as your bronze so heat them together. When brazing don't melt your bronze into your iron but instead heat your iron hot enough to melt the bronze rod when it contacts the iron. Brass works better than bronze.

[@vannoo67]

"heat your iron hot enough to melt the bronze rod" Exactly what I was thinking. Just like soldering. Also, I would try vibrating the 'mold' while adding the bronze / brass, to help the air bubbles out.

[@3000gtwelder]

@@vannoo67 That's exactly what I was thinking lol.

[@benkirkland5354]

If using brass, make sure you have plenty of ventilation, because zinc fumes suck. Low fuming bronze rod for TIG flows well, might be another good option.

[@x31omega]

This why I love the Blacksmith/bladesmith community. We always try to offer advice and help to each other. 👍👍

[@CNC-Time-Lapse]

Just like soldering, you don't heat the solder, you heat the part and the solder melts more evenly.

[@davidjohnston1971]

You need to pickle the iron for clean surfaces and coat with borax flux.I would dilute my flux to a liquid not a paste. Flux, flux and more flux to get your bronze/ brass to flow and bond well. Slow cooing will allow the bronze to stop bubbling and give more sound results. Brilliant idea once you get it sorted out.

[@markgerth9115]

Love the experimentation! I ran the pour room at a ceramic shell bronze foundry and loved "playing around" to see what we could get materials to do. Will, re: the porosity issue, it could be because you don't have enough bronze available to actually fill the piece - bronze shrinks as it cools. In casting, the pouring sprue (and even intentionally added risers or feeders) are used make sure that as the bronze cools it has a reservoir of material to pull from - otherwise you can be left with gaps in the casting. For a piece this small you could create a little plaster mold with a pouring sprue to act as the feeder which might mitigate the porosity issue. Best of luck on the next attempt!

[@JETWTF]

You can always braze into the porosity holes, get the original brazing to melt and fill in the divot with new. If there's hollow spots inside after it is at finished shape you and everyone else will never know. If you melt the bronze around the holes it will flow into them and you can always add more bronze to fill in where the original once was.

[@matthbva]

This is a cool idea. I have “inlaid” molten bronze into carved grooves in steel, then filed and sanded it flush and blued the steel. That worked so well that I had the idea to try what you are doing, but with steel cable instead of WI; however, I have never pursued it. I like the organic potential here. I suspect it would help if you could get your wrought *really* clean and scale-free before you started.

[@Scarodactyl]

I think this might be your most entertaining video yet. Really enjoying the struggle.

[@williamconsidine6046]

I would try silicon bronze tig rod. If you have a tig welder that could help more pinpoint where you are trying to fill the gaps. I have used it to repair cast iron in the past with some success. You can really get it to flow into cracks.

[@buiItnotbought]

We use silicone bronze for welding roll cage bars to floor pans. It's amazing

[@thetinkerist]

oh man I love this kind of material experimentation 😊 Try a bronze powder melt. Ofcourse a powder has a lot more volume than its melted form, but maybe melt bronze powder a couple of times in a row on top of each other. Vibrate the powder in place in an encasing, and do it three or four times. Again, Awesome vid, thanks 👍

[@dudemanproductions4529]

Well... I guess I’m not going to bed yet

[@The1withlogic]

Yep same thing here

[@ezri3250]

@@The1withlogic It's 6 am - why am I still awake???

[@griff5957]

Lmao saaaaame

[@frankierzucekjr]

Haha same bro

[@kencoffman7145]

Right! This guys got us hooked!!

[@BeN0lf]

My experience with working with lighter metals has taught me that it's the oxygen in the torch that is getting into the solder (brazing rod material), that and the air which is already there. I can make the inside of a piece of sterling silver look like an aero bar if I partially melt it with a blue flame torch. whenever I pour silver into an ingot mould I try to make sure to have some yellow in my flame, and then I give the molten metal container a few taps to release any larger bubbles In the jewellery trade, we use vacuum casting to eliminate most porosity but I get that this probably won't be an option. When I get porosity in metal, its usually because I've tried to remove cracks from a lower carat alloy of gold or silver by partially melting it, to remove the porosity I put it through the rolling mills, which in your case could be by forging it some. you look like you had some pretty serious porosity so perhaps it would take a lot of forging and you might end up splattering bronze everywhere. I'm surprised that melting the bronze in a container and then putting it into the kiln didn't work. My guess is it's the air in those crevices that is preventing the liquid metal from flowing in. I know that casters in jewellery use vibration to help remove bubbles in investment, perhaps this could be experimented with. I'm aware that this is a messy information dump and that you probably already know a lot of this stuff, hopefully the time that I've spent making mistakes can help you save time in the future when you (hopefully) get more time to experiment with this cool idea. Love the content man.

[@brettneff7900]

Ooh vibration! Good idea!

[@Jaeger69]

It should be the oxygen in the atmosphere that is reacting with the molten metal because ideally your torch flame should be neutral, meaning no excess oxygen and no excess carbon. Flux is the best way to protect the molten metal. Borax is my personal favorite general purpose flux. You can use it with silver, copper, tin, iron, zinc, and I'm sure other metals too. Buy some "20 Mule Team," crush it up nice and fine and then put it in your oven on a stainless cookie sheet for 8 hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Then put it in good hermetically sealed container. That drives the moisture out of it and reduces the amount of fizzing that happens when you use it. Alot cheaper than buying flux at the welding supply

[@Simon-jr2oe]

All of this makes sense but i think that forging it could be pretty dangerous as for the iron to forge properly it needs to be heated way above the melting point of the bronze causing it to spill everywhere. If the iron and bronze mix is welded into a container and then forged a weld on the container could break which would cause molten bronze to either only leak or shoot out if the pressure is high enough. So I probably wouldn’t want to do that but I completely agree with the other stuff you said and I think it would help a lot

[@garethtopliss350]

Will i must say that i love that you still post videos like this! Even though you didnt get the results you were looking for, this is what learning is about, trying different things even if it doesnt work. From my experience with braising the material needs to be very clean when you start and having the iron hot enough to melt the bronze on its own means you dont need to use the torch creating different patches of hot and cold in the piece and the expansion and contraction that comes with it, just an idea but i love that you are still attempting things like this and expanding your knowledge 👊🏻 keep up the great work!

[@coleparkins7646]

Couple of ideas: drawing a vacuum might help, and like some others have said: put the heat where you want the material to go. Like soldering, heat your base material hot enough to melt your second material; the bronze should flow to the heat. Try heating up your iron well past the bronze’s melting point (maybe from the side opposite from where you’ll introduce the bronze) and then add bronze until it stops soaking in. I’m not an expert, but I’ve done some soldering and I would expect the concept to transfer. Good luck, Will; I think it’s a great idea and I hope you crack it!

[@lbuttfruitloopsl5514]

Hi will! I’m a welder and do a lot of brazing on cables for cranes and figured I’d give you what I think would be useful advice when brazing. As far as the perosity goes I believe your main problem is the scale on the steel. I notice when cutting into cables and leaving the slag on, I end up with a bunch of bubbles that I cannot get out. Maybe try soaking the wrought iron in vinegar before attempting to braze? Also, braze follows the heat so I believe your tray method would work being that the whole work piece is being heated

[@breyghtonfilms4058]

We don‘t mind you trying and failing things, keep on pushing out these Videos you cannot learn more on a project then failing it. Love your content

[@emissaryofelohim1431]

Props to everyone in the comments, thank you all so very much for sharing your knowledge! You all seem to have something astute to share. Blessings to you all in your endeavors!

[@emissaryofelohim1431]

I read faster than my thumb works.

[@josephchestnut3770]

I did something similar with mild steel. I soaked the steel in muriatic acid, then I used soldering Flux and it worked well.

[@Naugrimsilvertree]

What an amazing material concept! I hope you can get it working. I'm seeing a lot of suggestions to use pressure or vacuum, which works well for resin and silicon, and that sounds like a way to go. That or just way more heat in the wrought iron when casting

[@thecre8ortyler620]

Love to see the innovation. These videos (although you feel like you got nothing done) are so important and it is so cool to see mad scientist Will at work!

[@Naugrimsilvertree]

Using an induction heater to heat up the piece during casting could allow you to make a vacuum chamber around it easier, as induction heaters can be smaller

[@brettneff7900]

Right?? Nice! Or just get it to temp and throw it in a vacuum chamber on a brick while it cools might even do it.

[@mikemoore4443]

What happens when all that heat gets sucked into your tubing and vacuum pump?

[@Naugrimsilvertree]

@@mikemoore4443 dang, good point. Well if there isn't an approachable way to make a heat resistant vacuum, people have suggested a pressure chamber instead, and that might have less of a problem of the heat going into the mechanics

[@kvg4790]

Learn to love your failures! You can learn so much more from failing in the right ways than you can from easy successes. Seems like you’re in the right headspace here! I have tons of respect for anyone who can incrementally fail like you have and at the end say “I’m not giving up on this, I’m just going to come back to this later.”

[@walkthebrokenpath0]

You could try wrapping the wrought iron and copper in a welded container and heating at a cooler temp to get cracks and flowing copper. I do recall a forge welded copper and damascus video. Didn't turn out perfectly had leaks but was at a much higher temp. The cracks would form but the copper would mesh into them and as the wrought iron cools the copper would have time to stay liquid and flow into any empty spaces before becoming a solidified piece.

[@darrylhscroggins]

I love that you share your failures as well as successes! I teach 4th grade in California and I’m always trying to teach my students a growth mindset to learn from their mistakes. Keep up the awesome work Will!

[@PBRJOHN684]

Will never give up and never call it a failure, always call it a learning curve. As a metal caster/metal smith I'm always finding new ways to attach two toned metals together. I might have a go and find out how to get it to work by another method if that's OK with you?

[@DaedricDrake]

Never apologize for showing us experiential methods. I know you will be successful on this and can't wait to see it

[@BillRodgers2]

Thanks for this great video. This is exactly what I’ve been asking for ( getting back to your roots. ) showing the process no matter if win of fail we are here for the journey. Ty

[@jakobrosenqvist4691]

I think there is good value in showing what doesn't work and not just the stuff that works. Way to many people only show off their perfect results.

[@piousminion7822]

Been a long time fan and... it's awesome that you show the little failures. A lot of people are scared to do that, but you only learn from failures. :)

[@ericmadsen8324]

If you can find the parts, rig up a heat-resistant vacuum chamber using some ceramic bowls and a high-temp seal. Take your bowl from the last bit, get it nice and molten, place in vac chamber, and pump it down. This might be enough to pull out the air bubbles that are trapped, and give you a much more solid part.

[@ClayRoe]

This is the first video of yours I've seen with you alone in your own shop. Liking what I see. And minor point, I love that you don't have wall to wall blaring music over every job you do. I love the sounds of the forge. I find it all very soothing. Keep it up. Subscribed.

[@PontusWelin]

Experimentation is fun! It’s not a failure! It’s all part of the process! These are absolutely my favorite videos of yours! Please keep experimenting! ❤️

[@Phixeon]

Experimentation is not a failure: You've learned a lot about what doesn't work, which has formed new hypotheses about what might work. Thanks for sharing this very cool project!

[@bretclark1608]

Vibrate the table with a power tool, sump pump, etc or something, to get the bubbles moving and exchanging place with the metal instead of remaining trapped and causing voids.

[@Deesdessessesder]

Centrifugal is a great idea if you have a setup, but might I also suggest a vacuum chamber or pressure pot if you can get access to one. Either should work to remove or reduce bubbles / cavities. My thoughts are that if you get the bronze molten and in the cavities as you did with your kiln, but go over melting temp to buy a little time, then transfer to either pressure pot or vacuum chamber then either quickly pressurize (which is easily done) or quickly pull a vacuum (less easily done), before the bronze falls below its melting temp, the trapped air will either find a way out (vacuum) or compress greatly (pressure pot) and the bronze will solidify in that position. Looks like you have plenty of suggestions to work from though.

[@jayhalloween]

Two approaches 1. Take a billet and drill holes in it like a cheese grater pattern. Stick it in the forge and then put it on the anvil. The goal here is to stretch the piece in order to get the circles to form into ovals and then further stretched into lines. If the circles encourage splits, even better. Once you have enough lines of grain, pour the bronze over it to fill the lines. Then surface grind. 2. Beat the hell out of the w-iron at the ends not the center. The ends are weak and will split more. Once splits begin to form, don’t encourage them. Press the iron together and work the center. Repeat this process to get more continuous line splits, without completely separating off chunks. A large flat rectangle would be ideal. Pour molten bronze on one side. Surface grind. Then repeat on the other side. I don’t think you’ll be able to get bronze to settle all the way without gaps. Iron conducts the heat away from the molten bronze and causes it to solidify to quickly. Any air under neath the bronze would just expand and bubble if you were to surface heat. The first method is likely to held the best results.

[@Squat5000]

I make a very hard silver bearing aluminum bronze with a bit of bismuth. I have taken steel like this, dipped out in hydrochloric acid to dissolve the oxides. Quick rinse, then flux with borax. Heat well above the melting point of the bronze. And vacuum cast the bronze around the steel in a ceramic crucible in a large vacuum chamber. The vacuum takes about 5 minutes to fully draw down, but with thick ceramic it stays hot enough long enough to get a great set. Grind away the extra

[@DavidArtman]

I really appreciate seeing your experimental process. Very educational.

[@BadForgeWeld]

I wonder if using granulated or “dust” to fill in the spaces and putting it on a canister would get better results filling in gaps and attain better bonding?? Cool idea, Will!! Great work, as always!

[@hazakdds7366]

I have learned a few things from some successes, but I have learned volumes from every one of my failures. Give yourself the gift of failure.

[@LisaHarsh]

I think watching experiments that don’t work out is actually a better learning experience for everyone including you. We are all learning after all.

[@lightsnsiren79]

Great video. Love to see the process when it isn’t glossed over. Would like to see you try more of the bronze brazing!

[@stegles]

I feel like having a container full of molten bronze ready and then adding a pre-heated piece of cracked cast iron to it, and re-heating it and keeping it at a temperature that the bronze remains molten for a few minutes to let it really get into as many cracks and holes as possible, then cooling it slowly, cut away the excess. If that doesn't do it then well.. good luck. Filling all the holes inside the cast though is going to rely on the holes/cracks going all the way to the surface. Maybe collab with a ASMR type scrapper/melter/recycler in your area could be interesting?

[@redwolfknives3174]

You haven’t failed. You are learning what doesn’t work. I know they sell brass powder. I wonder if you could take the iron pieces in a canister and fill the voids with brass powder and compress if that’d work. Or maybe use a crucible. I’ve never done either, it’s just a thought. You’re doing the right thing experimenting and I would wager inspiring other makers to try

[@benmason9058]

Another way you could possibly get a similar look, would be distress the wrought iron the same way, but instead of trying to melt bronze into the cracks, use resin and bronze powder. Then put it into a vacuum chamber to draw out the air. It would look similar to what you are trying to do. The only real drawback that I can think of is that the resin/powdered bronze will not polish out as well as you probably would want, although it would hold a decent brushed look.

[@MrKamakazy01]

You could make a BronzeMai blade with wrought iron jackets, bronze cladding and a high carbon core. I think that would look sick!!

[@pllapointe01]

Maybe you can try making a liquid pool of brass/bronze and dip your wrought-iron piece at forge temp right in that pool and let it soak for a little bit of time

[@notold37]

Saying that it's a failure is wrong, it was a learning curve, you've tried multiple ways, and so far it has been close, maybe like you said, a little bit more time, great video mate 👍🏼👍🏼🇦🇺🇦🇺🦘🦘Cheers from Melbourne Australia

[@Engineer_Bear]

Personally I really enjoy the experimentation videos. I'd like to see this be a success. The dark Iron and bright bronze (or brass) will look awesome in the end! I wonder if you were to heat the iron properly to start and get it closer to shape. Then under heat, run it through the press, and maybe use a hand hammer to chase checks and cracks where you want them. After that, EdOfTheNorth has good recommendations that I'd second.

[@matsleonrichter5305]

Cool Video, the idea regarding the wood pattern actually sounds a lot like mokume gane to me. My wedding ring is actually made with such a wood pattern using silver and different colors of gold. This is done by forging together sheets of different materials and then twisting turning the block to create patterns inside of it. I am an AI researcher by trade, so I have literally no idea about the material science behind this, but maybe something more like mokume gane would give you this effect?

[@theobaldvonthorhausen3049]

Besides the vacuum idea. How putting everything on a high frequency shaking plate fixing the wrought iron part in a tube and fill it with bronze so that by the vibration the air will rise and escape

[@Blurthelines05]

You are doing awesome Will. I love watching these videos full of learning experiences.

[@Let_bygones]

You may want to try finer bronze (shavings or ideally dust) clean and place the iron in a sealed tube of mild, add flux and the bronze tap it down as if you're forming a billet then add more flux and bronze then place it in your oven at the right temperature so the bronze can melt. Might be time consuming but I can't think of another way

[@dgundeadforge17]

if you had a double guard or clam shell guard you could forge the body at proper temp then press until the ends to split them then after cleaning the iron do the brass.

[@mattwilliams3456]

Interesting experiment and I hope to see you continue with it. Progress is built on failures from which something was learned, so they’re rarely truly wasted time. All the flux, vac, and vibration suggestions seem on point. Slow cooling seems wise with the different contraction properties.

[@daneholmbaeck7899]

Experiments equals new and different content that takes us along for the ride as well. Is it possible to place the molten piece into a vacuum to remove air bubbles?

[@josephrichardson7366]

love the experimentation even if it does end in "failure" great video and a fantastic idea in my opinion I hope to see more when you can.

[@paulorchard7960]

Interesting concept Will, Im going to give that a go with brass not bronze! Experimental work was got us out of the stone age so is never a waste of time!👍

[@nicole46980]

i think you might need a way to force the bronze into your mold or to get the air out, i've seen centrifuges used to force molten metal into intricate designs for jewelry, there's also the vacuum method you tries with Alec Steele a few years back when making a cavalry sabre guard

[@unknown-ql1fk]

Lots of good ideas in the comments, i would suggest a cheap amazon vacuum pump and steel pot and heat the whole piece and transfer to vac pot and pull a vacuum while molten

[@zenzeku]

It’s so cool watching you figure stuff out, keep on trying to discover!

[@bensalm5336]

This has got to be one of the coolest ideas I have seen!! For a man your age, you are an incredible craftsman; it's no wonder they chose you for this!!

[@Thrillbo341]

Laminate sheet of iron with sheet of bronze then over-work the iron, then bake them together in the heat treater. How about powdered bronze in a steel box? people say you need the cracks to be clean, I agree but you also have to drown that mother in flux or it'll fall out as your polishing later on. Remember you're skipping the forge welding like damascus.

[@HDBrown-wc9xt]

You could forge out the Wrot like normal without the splits then go back with your angle grinder and make the grainy lines like you want and fill them up.

[@AClockworkHellcat]

Maybe sandwich some bronze slips between layers of wrought iron and weld a can around it before forging, like you would for some damascus styles? That way the forging/splitting would naturally work molten bronze into the cracks it creates. Unfortunately, you could also end up splashing molten bronze everywhere if the can cracks, and unless you lapped your materials for an airtight fit in the can (and can you even lap wrought iron?) there's still a chance of air pockets. Yeah, a vacuum or pressure method like everyone else is suggesting is almost certainly more reliable, but who knows, this could yield unexpectedly interesting results.

[@RalasFurion]

I wonder if a vacume chamber, or concrete vibrater would help the brazing rod to seep deeper into the cracks. Make a canister twice as tall as your iron material. Fill it to the brim and shake it down while it cools?

[@tonyn3123]

This was a good video. Don't apologize for experimentation. It's always interesting and much better than outlandish projects none of us have an inclination to try. I like your idea of having random flows of the two materials. That would be a really nice effect. With the issues you are having, have you considered maybe having controlled voids in the iron by drilling diagonal holes in some random pattern and fill those with bronze, then cut out the guard? Drilled on a diagonal, the holes would be very oval. Just thinking.

[@ryandemoret5882]

I have never worked with bronze. However, what would happen if you made a canister and put in your wrought iron pieces and then added in find grains of bronze Powder or shavings. Similar to welding canister Damascus with steel?

[@jerrystott7780]

You need the metal you want the brazing rod to stick to very clean. Flux won't bypass that necessity. Then if there are cavities afterwards grind them out a bit and rebraze that spot without heating the entire bar red hot. Pause and restart as necessary to get it done. Have a great day.

[@MrAuron34858]

I was thinking something related to vibrations depending on the viscosity of the bronze. I haven’t even begun my journey of metal work so I’m just trying to logic something out in my mind lol. I’m thinking something like a vibration table that your oven could sit on that would work all the air out of the bronze (again depending on the viscosity when melted) and help it settle.

[@MediocreHexPeddler]

That band saw is a thing of beauty.

[@richwatts1981]

have considered using a bronze powder with a kind of canister ? vibrate the canister to settle the powder into the voids.

[@eric13hill]

16:07 "...or 2 meters if you use the metric system" :) Good one!

[@pimpinveccy]

Heat the bronze to melting point and have a container of liquid bronze then add the preheated iron to the pot and push it down into the liquid

[@timl.8578]

I like the fact that you made a big cross on the wall, ist cool 👌

[@grzegorz5635]

Try to take two metal buckets and drill the bottom in one of them. Then put one (drilled) in the other one, fill with water and use like a strainer. That's better solution for getting rests of molten metal than a bucket & rag. :)

[@Donorcyclist]

I really enjoy your inventive spirit, Will!

[@Trunks0]

I know nothing. But maybe flip it around and submerge it. Assemble some nice long sticks/chunks of the split iron into a bundle and dip it like a candle into crucible of molten bronze? Or some variant there of? Then mill/grind/cut and see what you get?

[@brckshouse3660]

Can you possibly seal the heat treating oven and maybe set up a vacuum and try flowing the bronze at something like 5 psi then open the chamber to atmospheric and use the increasing airpressue to push the metal in to the void?

[@pneumarian]

It's great to see the successes, but the experimentation is awesome as well!

[@clintbartenstein6876]

Thanks for showing the whole picture failures and all. Its gonna be killer when you are done!

[@calebhembra5602]

Could you do a like a canister damascus with the wrought iron and bronze or brass powder. That way you could use the press to squeeze it all together to get the porosity out.

[@andrewstrongman305]

I think that another approach would be to pre-heat your 'split iron' and then immerse it into the crucible of molten bronze. You would have to cut the excess bronze from the surface of the iron, but I think you'd be left with solid bronze veins running through your piece.

[@crowe3875]

Great video will keep up the great content. Looking forward towards your videos all the time.

[@bernardblack6997]

dude...lost wax cast it....clean out all ya cracks and gaps etc, melt wax into all the cavities of your wrought iron - attach sprues to everywhere you have put wax - bung it into a big perforated flask (literally what you did for the cavalry sabre) - the burn out will remove all ya wax leaving the iron in place - then do a nice pour of bronze into it...in theory the bronze will fill in all the negative space. (theres a few steps etc i left out but i recon you'd get the drift) i do it with gold onto platinum etc...neat little trick. ;p either way! the builds looking wicked mate!

[@Kellog888]

Ive worked with some what never band saw ins steel shops one the moste useful things in the work for metal working they are accurate to a tooth and if u cut slow the bands last a good while

[@jaunusender6166]

What if instead of using a brazing bar you used a powdered or shaving of bronze similar to Borax in forge welding to get it into the crevices. Especially with the difference in temperatures causing the bronze to essentially bubble. It would get more evenly heated.

[@nabrup3]

Will, the best thing to prevent air bubbles in small gaps like that is a pressure pot or a vacume chamber. Working with hot materials like that will make it tricky. I used a small electric forge inside of a vacume chamber to remove air pockets (melted aluminum, in between opened steel cable strands) and then pressurized the chamber while it cooled, wound up crushing the chamber, but the metal came out ok.

[@cmasp64]

I liked the food thing and the metal working.

[@The_Orbus]

Id say using bronze powder in a sealed canister would probably work better, much like how you guys did in "Forging a Hammer from Hammer Plug Damascus! Part 1" with Alec. But I'm no metallurgist, so I don't know if the different temps the two metals like in a sealed container or something would make a process too funky. That, and some sort of vacuum chamber might help.

[@ChileExpatFamily]

Good work for sure. You learned something. So you are all the better for it. Jim

[@DurtySailor]

that would look awesome hopefully you get it to work also that new SAW looks amazing.

[@aniceto11]

Try Damascus process with bronze. Then you may turn, fold, bend, cut, distort the bar so it can be more natural looking.

[@DoctorRedstone72]

very cool material, would love to see that work eventually

[@letsgojeepin415]

Good Day Will, could you try to fill the splits with copper first and then heat in the oven with the bronze on top. This would allow the copper to act as a flux and pull the bronze through the cracks as it melts and runs.

[@NuclearFoxx]

Possibly laying the wrought iron in a tray and pouring the melted bronze and submerging the iron, then putting the piece in a vacuum chamber could force the air out of the small spaces in the wrought iron, giving you a less porous material

[@robinborkowski5598]

Wil I'm going to suggest something I've never tried and have on experience with, I have noted some excellent suggestions below, try using excessive amounts of flux, not to help with binding, but to help with the reduction of surface tension of the molten metal.

[@kayhaverkort4220]

Really cool idea! That material would be awesome and i think its worth refining. I Love how you experiment with that. Thare is no shame in failure when you keep learning from it. I had a idea you could (maybe) try with some creativity: It looks like inside the material airbubbles stay in the way of the brass to flow into the crevices. Maybe if you can come up with a way to get you attempt at pouring brass in to a mold with the iron inside a vacuum chamber whilst still being a liquid. It could push the air to the top just like with pouring clear resin. I'm thinking of a bigger batch of brass to keep the heat for longer. Building a metal box that can stand the heat and close airtight fast. And using a flash vacuum technique like is done in vacuumforming whare you suck the vacuum in a separate tank first and let it suck the air out of the vacuum chamber fast when you are ready for it. It would be a lot of work when it doesn't workout but so worth it if it does.

[@nicks-analytics]

Keep it up Will. Just read a bunch of the comments. Mostly all great ideas and suggestions You’re a Master Alchemist in training

[@masonborden5594]

Its almost 2 in the morning. I must watch will make stuff

[@SergeantSphynx]

If nothing else, it was a cool idea and something that I hope you explore further when you aren't under a time restraint.

[@joshofalltradesgendron5464]

Please review that saw as you go. As a master journeyman sheet metal worker we always used the chop saws that use there own weight and a piston to control drop speed