Is copper a good metal to use for fire equipment?

Ive asked this in the 'bearclaw snakes' thread, but i thought id do a separate entry before it gets lost!!!!

can anyone help?

not good for staff or swinging clubs

generaly Its a bit soft,
and a very good heat conductor
but depends what you want to use it for?

g

Oops!

Ive just used it for the tops of my fire snakes! The attachment bits between kevlar and chain, du recon it stands a chance?

Green_fire,

adamrice just told us he likes copper for crimped sleeves which seal the end-loops of cable wire, which might even be within an inch of the firehead, coz he gets good results with them; he could tell you more, no doubt he's a wiz at testing da physics of toys.

but yuh, copper's a supergood conductor, so watch out. is yours thick enough to withstand heat at your staff-ends? maybe. in zimbabwe where we grew up and there are major major copper mines, copper was often used for ashtrays & fire-poking equipment for your fireplace hearth. ya never saw an actual brazier, holding flaming logs, made of copper in zimbabwe, but ya know french chefs use it for some skillets too, though they're a bitch to clean and keep shiny.

so if your copper - dunno if it's best pure or in a strengthened, stiffer or more heat-resistant in the sense of keeping shape - alloy -- if your copper stays in its shape, that's ok on your snakes.

one thing about copper as a good conductor, it swells a lot more than other metals when hot, so watch it doesn't pop off.

glass,

is copper bad for staffs even if screwed into the wood? does it wear down the wood too fast by conducting the heat into the rod?

on the other hand, i love copper. it's a warm, rich color more than even shiny cold steel, rusty iron, and sometimes i love its orange-reddishness more than gold or yellow or greeny brass. so i often use it for its own aesthetic and even mythic qualities. but i've never tried it as part of a fire toy yet.

so let us know how yours works, eh? if it seems reliable after taking any feedback ya get from us all into consideration, try it out safely, Green_fire!

yuh?

or like so much of our time, just time for another mod to your toyz to put on some other link.

cheers, wishin ya great designin,

~ Mikie

[ 30 October 2002, 06:57: Message edited by: FíreMîke ]

My first few staffs were made of copper pipe. They worked just fine. I had no problem with the heat what so ever. The only thing is that the do bend pretty easily, but my first one lasted about a month before I noticed a bend in it and it hit the ground a whole lot in that month. Aluminum tubing will work better, but is much more expensive.