Which steel bends easily?

[lugerholsterrepair]

If I were doing this I might attempt it this way..Fashion a bar of steel with sharp edges and wrap your wire around it under as much tension as you can manage.. hammering the wire at the flats and corners with a lead or plastic mallet. Then cut your staple out with a rotary tool like a Dremel. Might take some adjustment on the size of the steel bar to get the size accurate enough but once it's perfected it would make a lot of staples quickly.

If I remember correctly..many times these types of wire bends are cut at the undersides of the corner bends. Removing some small amount of steel there allows for a clean bend.

When you get a staple you like it is very simple to fire blue it. Lay it on a fire brick and scan a plumbers torch over it..slowly feathering around it untill it magically turns to a straw color..take your torch away at this point as it will continue to heat and likely turn a beautiful fire blue. If you want a dark blue to black keep your torch on untill you see the fire blue..take it off and it will be done. Do NOT quench it in anything. Let it cool and oil it.

I have even fire blued relatively large parts like buttplates..

[Olle]

Originally Posted by lugerholsterrepair

If I were doing this I might attempt it this way..Fashion a bar of steel with sharp edges and wrap your wire around it under as much tension as you can manage.. hammering the wire at the flats and corners with a lead or plastic mallet. Then cut your staple out with a rotary tool like a Dremel. Might take some adjustment on the size of the steel bar to get the size accurate enough but once it's perfected it would make a lot of staples quickly.

This project would be much less difficult if I could bend it first and then cut the legs to the correct length. The reason why I can't do that is that the ends need to be turned down to 2.5mm, which forms a shoulder that acts as a stop when you tap it into the frame. This means that I have to cut the rod to the exact length, turn both ends and center it carefully in the tool in order for the legs to come out the same length.

I have Walther's original drawing for this part and the cut length is 3mm longer than what I have found necessary, so it's quite possible that the factory had a way of trimming and forming the ends after the rod was bent.