Copper barrel lugs?

[wbradbury]

Just curious if anyone has ever used copper for dovetailed barrel lugs.  I did a search but didn't find anything . Just curious. Will

[Acer Saccharum]

Copper is quite soft, a misaligned pin going in can enlarge a hole in the lug pretty easily. Or the lug gets bent over.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I've made them of brass before, but not copper.  Copper is too soft.

[wbradbury]

Gotcha, I was kinda thinking that myself but figured I would ask.

[tim crowe]

I saw a copper repair lug sweated on a French Fowler, the others were steel.

[EC121]

A penny is a copper alloy.  Might be an interesting project to bend a penny and file one out of it.

[Kermit]

Choose your penny carefully. All that glitters is not copper?

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/?action=fun_facts2

[stuart cee dub]

you beat me to it Kermit .An old penny is copper ,the newer ones are zinc.
Personally copper wouldn't even be my third choice.And it would have to be thicker than a penny.
That is was used makes perfect sense in a make do world for a quick repair back in the day on the French fowler Tim mentioned.
 

[Daryl]

dead soft, ie: pure copper has a Brinel hardness, according to Veral Smith's book, of 35.  Hardened (antimony/lead/arsenic) WW, if hardened at 5F degrees below 'slump' temperature, can, 12 hours after quenching, attain a Brinel hardness of 34.  Over time, they will then age-soften to approx. Brinel 25.   For comparison, NEW Linotype has a Brinel hardness of 22.