hardening aluminum?

[losthelm]

I picked up a sheet of aluminum the other day and I'm tryig to figure out if its hard enuff.thick enuff for sca gauntlets. 16 guage aluminum.
any ideas on how to figure out the alloy or general hardening tips for aluminum?

[Hjlmr inn Danski]

Greetings,

I read somewhere that if you can bend the aluminum with your hands, it's too thin for armor.

Is that right or did I dream it?


Hjlmr inn Danski

[Johann Lederer]

I have used heavy sign aluminum, for simple elbow cops. I annealled it by heating it with a torch and quenched it. Then it work hardened when it was formed.

Hjlmr is right, if you can bend it easily, it isn't going to work. Optimum thickness is .090 inch....

[Tatsuo Okami]

the best all around aluminum to use for armour is 6061 alloy .080 thick with a T-6 temper grade. its tough enough to stand up to SCA fighting with out being IMPOSSIBLE for most people to work.

Other than that the techinicaly BEST set up is to get 7075 alloy .060-.070 thick in T-0 (dead soft) shape ity and then bake it (see a Metallurgical site for specs) to bring it up to T-6. Any of the aluminum alloys that have a "T" rating can be hardened. Up to T-6.... That is the highest Temper rating for Aluminum.