As usual, I let my imagination get away from me and move into difficult territory for my first brazing project. I decided to work with steel, rather than any of the softer metals, which would probably be better suited for a novice.

All shapes and sizes of metal stock can be picked up from the hardware section of a big box home center. I selected 2" wide by 1/8" thick flat bar, plain steel. I bought a couple 3 foot-long pieces for about 7 bucks a piece.

Sliding the cool, blue steel nimbly from the display rack / sheath, the ever present 10 year old in me reeeeeeally wanted to craft a sweet ninja sword or two, instead of some sensible bookends. Alas, sadly, family dudes in their forties really don't need sweet ninja swords. 

(Update – I only used one of the pieces, leaving me a spare to get into mischief with later. Hmmmmm…)

Flat Bar Plain Steel

I didn't want to make the pieces overly ornate or fancy. Just straight, square-cut, and neat. Industrial looking simplicity. There are a multitude of tools that can cut metal when equipped with a proper blade, grinders, circular saws, miter saws, cut-off saws, jigsaws, and if you’re feeling froggy, a good, old fashioned muscle and sweat powered hacksaw.

Most of my experience is with a fast and easy reciprocating saw. I loaded a bi-metal blade and tightened one of the steel bars in my little bench vice. Initially, I marked my cut with a pencil, but found I couldn't see it in the shadow with the saw in place. I scratched a good, silver mark with a sharp tipped punch I had in my drawer. That did the trick.

Taking it nice and easy, at a low angle, a reciprocating saw can cut a pretty straight line. Fine tooth, bi-metal blades leave a decent finished cut, but you still have to be careful handling a fresh-cut edge bare handed. There are often sharp burs that won’t hesitate for a second before rudely trenching a nice, bleeding gouge through your favorite pencil holding finger.

I sanded the pieces with a course grit. The mating surfaces need to be clean and a little roughed up to bind with the brazing material.

After that, all the pieces went to the sink for a nice dish soap and warm water wash. This raw steel had a light oil and oxidation to it. Standard, grease-cutting dish soap left it squeaky clean.

Brazing Time!

Pop a soft, orange flame to life with the handheld sparker that comes with the kit. The flame waives around like a flag in a gentle breeze, nothing like a standard soldering torch, blasting out straight, like a jet engine.

From there, it takes a deft little back-and-forth hand dance between the valves to get the oxygen flowing and the flame shooting. More MAP-Pro softens the flame, more Oxygen sharpens it up.

You’ll know it when you’ve got it. It’s a sharp blue knife of flame glowing like a light-saber and roaring like rocket. Get too greedy with the oxygen all at once and POP! out goes the light. Close both cylinders and start over.

No worries you’ll master it shortly. This is only my second project with this torch and I’m able to get it right,  most of the time on my first attempt.

I adjust the little, innermost cone of right blue flame to about a half inch long.  I held that right off the work-piece, slowly working it in small circles, heating both pieces to get an even red glow between them. It’s exciting stuff.

With the torch still blasting, I slid a Bernzomatic Brass Brazing Rod alongside the flame and ran it along the red hot steel. It took a little fiddling and some extra heat, but I got the feel for the process. I dabbed that brazing rod along the corner letting it melt as I kept the fire on.

My first bead wasn’t so pretty, I went back in and touched up a couple voids before calling it good enough. Although the glowing steel visibly cooled quickly, the whole piece was radiating lots of heat. Picking it up for a moment with my heavily gloved hand, I could feel it. As I moved it around with a pair of pliers, I could tell the bond was strong. I set it aside to cool. You can’t quench it with water like freshly soldered copper pipe. It could crack. It’s a slow air cool.

I ran a second bead of molten brass along the back side of the joint, then built the second piece. I let them both cool on the patio stones while I retreated to the kitchen for a snack. My had work got neater with experience and I was getting faster; a good plate of nachos seemed like an appropriate next step.

I returned to add the decorative, bracing elements. I’ve seen similar projects using all manner of metal pieces, several with steampunk-looking gears and other cool stuff. As your handy, tool-loving DIY-ster, of course I chose tools. In this case, I used specific tools that had a special meaning to me. I used two pair of Klein pliers I had carried with me in the first years of my brief career as an electrician. They were now spares, since I’d later upgraded to heavy-duty, pro versions of the same style. If you want to do a similar project and don’t want to sacrifice your gear, I suggest digging through the ever-present tool bins of your local pawn shop or Goodwill store. There are certainly some aged gems to be found on the cheap.

I cut the rubber handle covers off, sanded the mating area, and braced a pair of needle nose with the heavy bricks. I was really surprised how quickly I was able to heat the tool steel. I think it was because the heat was focused on a smaller area, unlike the wide bar stock that had a big surface to dissipate my heat. This little union was quick and easy. Within a few moments, I removed the bricks and tacked the tip of the handle down as well.

By the time I hit the fourth and final spot on my trusty linesman pliers, I was a tool brazing madman. It almost looked like I knew what I was doing.

Just a shiny spot of bright brass and a bit of soot around the area.

After a bit of cooling, I switched to a lighter glove and swapped the welding goggles for safety glasses. I put a grinding tip in my rotary tool and smoothed the brazed areas a little bit. I feathered a chunky edge or two, smoothing it into the bar stock.

I also took a small grinding wheel to the cut edges of the steel to smooth the burs and ease the corners very slightly.

I ran over both pieces with an abrasive brush wheel I had in my drawer to clean them up. A light wire wheel would do the same trick. I washed them again with dish soap and warm water before taking them outside for painting.

They did look cool in rough, raw form. They’d probably be just fine for a workshop, but I wanted them to look nicer for use in civilized society.

I gave them a quick toot of spray paint. I chose a hammered silver metallic, that I thought would be good for covering up the lumpy sins of my amateur brazing skills imperfections.

The paint finished beautifully. Too beautifully. I felt it covered a little too much of the texture and character of battle hardened hand tools.

To give a little texture and depth, I gave the pieces a slight spattering mist of gloss black spray paint. I barely pushed the spray button while standing well above my work. The can spattered, spit, and drooled little droplets and mist that gave an uneven speckled look. Perfect.

Done deal. A quick project overall. I think it turned out great.

I popped them up on the bookshelf with some leather bound classics. They look good, but I think I’m going to take them to work and put them in my office to support some more construction-ey oriented books. I think hand tools may be a little lowbrow for the likes of Doyle, Austin, and James.

This is a sponsored post. I am a proud to be a Bernzomatic Torch Bearer, though all opinions expressed are 100% my own. I won't recommend products I don't believe in.

The Torch Bearers are a group of tradespeople, DIYers, culinarians, adventurers and artists brought together to create projects using Bernzomatic torches and share their knowledge and ideas with you. Check them out here and get inspired to create with fire.