I lied.

OK scrap note no 5 from the previous entry i found a place that does sell soft zinc sheeting... but as roofing supply. I need to change that note to no one sells zinc sheet only strips. The zinc strips is under the product name of Rheinzink which is why it was a little hard to find.

This Rheinzink is actually an alloy 99.995% zinc and additives of copper and titanium. It was developed specifically for building construction. information on this zinc can be found here:

http://www.craftmetals.com.au/htm/rhein_matinfo.htm

Took a while but needing to contact someone really pushed me to go and hunt down different avenues.

Called up craft metals just to ask a few questions. This is what i learned and the implications...

Soft zinc can be cut using metal snips, die cut and laser cut. The laser cutting does not make the edges go hard as i had feared but actually turns to liquid and runs away. So I'm assuming a cooler laser would be needed to cut the zinc. From the fact that it can be cut with a laser.. i will also assume that it can be cut very finely, but need to take into account the softness of the zinc, it might flop if the pattern is too fine.

The edges which is what everyone had been worrying about can be smoothed by curling them under like what they do on tin cans type thing, or you can sand them smooth. On a larger scale i think that the edges could be die pressed so it was round but that wouldn't be important cos theoretically if made commercial it would still be in extremely low volumes.

Zinc actually doesn't oxidise very quickly unless exposed to water or if you swam with it, i think also perspiration would also affect it. From the previous blog that would mean that the owner of the piece could decide what to do with it... maintain the low shine... or allow the piece to age.

Of course all of this depends on the thickness of the material that i choose to use, which at this moment I'm still unsure.