[Jewelry making - Article 00569] - Re: [Orchid] Best Bronze for jewelry making?

[Cynthia Eid]

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Hi Roberta,

    I have looked into bronzes quite a bit, and it is amazing how many
    alloys there are! As far as I can tell, "true" bronze is tin with
    copper. It is rare to find this alloy, though. Most of the metals
    called bronzes are actually brasses, and are primarily copper with
    zinc. Commercial bronze is 90% copper, and 10% zinc---it's one of my
    favorites to work with. 

    There seem to be at least a hundred different bronze and brass
    alloys, developed for different properties, and so, they are often
    confused or mistaken for each other. Technically, brasses are copper
    alloyed with zinc; bronzes are copper with tin, and sometimes other
    alloys. Unfortunately, the names used for alloys don't always
    recognize these technicalities. For instance, Nugold, Rich Low Brass,
    Red Brass, Merlin's Gold, Jeweler's Bronze, Commercial Bronze, 220
    alloy, 230 alloy --- all these names may be used to refer to
    copper/zinc alloys whose composition ranges from 85 to 90% copper and
    15 to 10% zinc. These alloys are all nice to work with. 

    By the way, they work similarly to sterling silver, so they can be
    better to use than copper when learning to form, if the ultimate goal
    is to work sterling silver. I like to use these alloys when teaching
    forging or shell forming (anticlastic and synclastic forming). 

Cynthia Eid
http://www.cynthiaeid.com
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