Restoring bent bail handles - tricks?

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]Does anybody know a good trick for restoring a factory bend to a bail handle on a bailed griddle or dutch oven?  I'm sure when they were built they had a tool for bending the wire, but if I go after it now with two pairs of needle-nosed pliers, I'm just as likely to bend it as bad in other directions.  Any ideas?  Thanks.[/size]

[Roger Barfield]

I have heard it's easier to bend if you heat it.  I have not bent one that way though. 

[Roger Muse]

I haven't worked with original bails, just replace one, including the tipping ring on a flat bottomed kettle.

The bail wire is supposed to have a temper to it.  Kind of like hardening that you do to a knife blade. 

Heating it takes the temper away and makes the metal more maleable (easily bendable).

You then have to re-temper the metal to make it hard again.  Heat it up till it just starts to glow, then quench it in water.  This will make the bail less likely to bend again.

[Cheryl Watson]

I'd quench in oil.... 20 W motor oil, or another heavier oil....

I have a mini-butane torch for isolated heat spotting... and on straight pieces my monster vise, with a piece of leather placed over each side of the 'jaws'....

[C. Perry Rapier]

I don't know about straightening out bales but I know a lot of bales are ruined by folks who buy a kettle with a bail and immediately assume that they should hang this kettle over a campfire by the bale. And of course while the pot is full and heavy. When the pot gets hot the bale gets hot and the kettle weight pulls the pot down and bends the bale and ruins it.  >:( >:(

Unless a bale, and you'll know, is absolutely made to hang the kettle with over an open fire do not do that because you are just going to ruin it. That bale is to carry the kettle empty and carry the whole kettle and contents when its open, not cook with it hanging by the bale. And if you look at kettles on ebay and you see one stretched totally out of shape, thats what happened to it. Also the sellers often advertise them as great to hang or cook over an open fire, and unless you know otherwise you will ruin a good piece by using it in that manner.

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]Thank you for your suggestions.  I was specifically wondering about the bail handles used on Griswold's round bailed griddles or Dutch Ovens.  The gauge of wire that they used is thin enough that it could, with a little tolerance for pain, be bent cold with bare fingers, and could be bent even easier with pliers.  The problem is how to get it back to a smooth curve.  I've got a No. 14 (618) griddle that has a bumpy bail with a lot of small raggedy bends in it, and at the Newville, PA sale this past weekend I just acquired a No. 6 Slant ERIE DO that looks really nice, but has a flattened bail where somebody pushed it in.  I suppose I could try to bandsaw a semicircular hardwood form and then rubber-mallet a heated handle into place around its curviture, but having read these responses, I'm a little wary about having the metal loose temper.  I really wasn't originally planning on heating it at all.  I was wondering if anybody knew of a hand tool used to put a gradual steady curvature into a piece of wire without heat.[/size]

[Cheryl Watson]

Wow, Adam... you were there! and didn't introduce yourself!!  ;)

[Adam Hoagland]

[size=12]No joke, I heard a woman respond to the name "Cheryl" while I was looking over the cast iron before the sale, and I did ask her if she was Cheryl Watson, but it turned out to be a different Cheryl.  I guess that's as close to an introduction as I got that day...

I was in the front, about five feet away from the curiously loud amphitheater speakers that the auctioneers were using.  I got a #3 Merit skillet, a Plett Pan, that #6 slant ERIE DO, and a Best Made #2 grinder, and the unbridled experience of being runner-up bidder on about that many more pieces.  I went home happy.[/size]

[C. B. Williams]

It takes a specialized tool to properly bend rod and tubing to different radii. There are a number of tool stores that have them. One is "Northern tools" which has several. They have a web site so do a search and take a look.

[Chuck Rogers]

I did a complete bail on a Griswold #11 Tite Top Dutch Oven. All those tight bends around the attachment point were the toughest, but it turned out really nice. The gauge wire was tough to match. Of course I was just looking at stuff off the shelf in the local TSC. Went up just slightly in size. I did not temper the handle as the wire was heavy enough to support the weight of the DO and it's contents. I would however, temper thinner wire, ie  Waffle Iron bail handles.
 I've since sold the DO, but was sure to tell the buyer that it was a replacement bail.