Metalworking Tip about Copper Off-Cuts
Copper Off-cuts tend to have sharp ends which really hurt if they pierce your fingers. I know because I have experienced it plenty of times! And if you use snips / scissors / shears to cut shapes out of thin copper sheet then the off-cuts have all kinds of curls and bends on them too.
I never throw anything away and hold on to these copper off-cuts as they are useful for all kinds of design projects, especially for smaller items like earrings, pendant bails and even small pendants. I store all my copper off-cuts in little plastic boxes. And when I need a small bit of copper for something I just rummage through the boxes to find the right piece instead of cutting up a bigger sheet of copper.
Previously when I put my hand into the box there were lots of “OW” and some (OK a lot) of swearing as these pesky little bits with really sharp ends attacked me!
To avoid injured (sometimes bleeding) fingers I have now started hammering these curled up bits of copper off-cuts to flatten them before I throw them into the plastic box. It just takes a few seconds to flatten each piece out using a flat hammer and a nylon block. But it saves a lot of pain, especially when you are in the middle of a project and just need to get on without bleeding all over the workbench.
Hope this tip is useful to other metalworkers who, like me, have experienced sharp copper off-cuts biting them!
- Don’t throw away copper off-cuts
- these off-cuts have sharp ends which can hurt your fingers
- flatten the off-cuts using a hammer and a nylon (or wooden) block. Don’t have a Nylon bench block? Buy one here
- store them for future use.
