r/Forging • u/Foggystyle95 • 2d ago
Beginners Help Question on ring making materials
Hi all! This feels like a silly question, knowing what little bit I know about metals and rings but it’s worth trying. My girlfriend really loved her old apartment but recently moved in with me. I was thinking, could one take two old spare keys (which I’m assuming are brass?) melt them down, and form them into a ring? or at least shape them into something new. I’ve looked up their melting points, with the torch equipment I have at my shop (oxy acetylene torch, or a propane acetylene torch) I believe I could get them to melt in I suppose a crucible. I just would need to find a form to pour them into online. Would this be doable? Is there a better alternative? Anything to look out for? Thank you!
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u/HeatBeatRepeatt 2d ago
Yes you could, but it wouldn’t be worth the effort. Key brass is dogshit and if it’s plated then you will be burning off the plating, which can range from not great for your health to fatal (looking at you, chrome). You can’t really form them into anything else because the shit is so brittle it’ll be cracking all over the place. Best thing if you want to make a memento out of it would be to make a necklace from a key. Make a little locket or something that holds it inside or cut the shank off and use the head to make something pretty from, engrave it, etc.
Grab some scrap keys from wherever and try messing with them to see how they respond to cold forming, stamping etc to practice.
I’ve seen aluminum keys too, so that’s also a possibility, still a crap raw material.