So a mentor on our team has offered to help us bend a piece of steel flat plate for our shooter. We planned to do this black Smith style with a blow torch to heat the metal then bend it. The question is, is it legal to bend the metal with this method? We ask because some rules mention not being able to chemically treat metal but does that also mean heating it. Thanks!
If you are talking about the 5 hole flat plates you don’t really need to heat it up, it bends fine without heating the metal up
So when you heat the steel you actually make its structure much more harder to bend, plus with heat you can get a more perfect bend then you would with a hammer. In total makes a great, reliable backing material.
If you’re hardening the steel, I’m fairly sure its illegal.
If you want a really good curve then I’d suggest using Lexan. Just heat it a bit (which is legal) and bend it to the desired curve. From my own experience, this is the superior method, but if you want to use steel, then just use a hammer on it cold.