How can I form a piece of brass tubing into a tool handle ferrule?

[cazclocker]

Good ideas above. Here is how I did mine with stainless tubing. No rolled edge at all. Used heavier gauge.

View attachment 489592

Those are beautiful... and with no edge rolling, either!

 

[cazclocker]

.45 ACP brass........

OK... that's a pretty brilliant idea... I don't have any .45 ACP cartridges handy, but I know a guy...!!!

 

[rwm]

I suspect store bought tubing is about half-hard. You can easily anneal the brass by heating to red and quenching in water. Jewelers do that all the time as their material work hardens. If you go that route....

 

[cazclocker]

I suspect store bought tubing is about half-hard. You can easily anneal the brass by heating to red and quenching in water. Jewelers do that all the time as their material work hardens. If you go that route....

I thought that annealling occurs when metal is heated to below red-hot, and left to air cool. I've never done any metal hardening or annealling, but I could swear that hardening steel was done by heating to a cherry-red and then quenching (whether in water or oil depending on the type of steel), and then annealling is done by re-heating the already-hardened steel to something below red-hot, and then left to cool in the air. Maybe I'm thinking of tempering...??? Sorry, I'm old and dumb...

 

[jwmelvin]

I could swear that hardening steel

Steel is the key. Steel quench hardens, but brass and aluminum (among others) don’t. So you can anneal those by simply heating and then the cooling is irrelevant. Fast cooling lets you handle the piece sooner.

 

[rwm]

@jwmelvin is entirely correct. I learned to anneal while pulling wire for jewelry. Brass, silver, and gold must all be annealed after working and especially before pulling wire through a plate. We would just heat, quench in water and move on. The metal was noticeably softer. This also works for work hardened stainless.

 

[Weldingrod1]

You can make a rounded edge wheel for a tubing cutter that will swage down tubing. Cut in the center of the groove, spank it with a hammer to round it in more, and clean to taste!

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[David2011]

I suspect store bought tubing is about half-hard. You can easily anneal the brass by heating to red and quenching in water. Jewelers do that all the time as their material work hardens. If you go that route....

I'll second this. Brass anneals differently from steel alloys. It does not harden when water quenched but by work hardening. Heat the brass in a darkened room so you can see the color change. When it's red, drop in into water and done! Don't skip the safety glasses. Things can pop!