Hi folks, Im after some solid copper blank ovals. Ive found some but Im not sure if the gauge/thickness means that they are solid of not. Ive contacted the site but so far no answer.
Do any of you know what a metal gauge has to be so it is solid and won’t bend.
Ta muchly.
I can only go on what my fingers can bend,as far as copper goes I would guess 2mm,thicker for a large oval.If you are going to solder a bezel .80–1mm.
They will almost certainly be solid as the amount of effort to make them hollow isn’t worth it, they probably just stamp them out of sheet several thousand at a time. The thickness you will need for them to not bend will depend on the size and what you are going to be doing with them eg for a keyring I’d go thicker than for a pendant. The copper blanks that cooksongold sell for pendants are 0.9mm thick. For my narrow cuffs I use 0.9mm thick or 20 gauge (not too heavy, holds shape once bent but with a bit of flex), for the wider ones (4cm across or more) I drop down to 0.8mm thick (which is about 22 gauge). The hammering that I do to put the texture in and shape them causes the metal to become stiffer so if I was wasn’t hammering them I would use a slightly thicker sheet to compensate.
Sorry lots of info there and not a clear answer but hopefully something of use.
Sasha