It will be 6061-T6
6061 is the alloy designation, and T6 is the temper. In this case full hard.
T0 is fully annealed and T4 is the half hard condition.
You will absolutely struggle to hand bend 6061 T6 without a proper metal brake
To anneal it in the home/shop environment, you can either use bar soap as Rog says, or I use a normal permanent marker, the ink/solvent vaporizes off of the metal at the annealing temperature.
A third technique is when using a propane or similar torch to heat the material, that the flame colour will start to turn from blue to ever so slightly pink as the material nears the correct temperature
A further alternative technique when using oxy/acetylene is to use an acetylene flame with no oxygen to coat the part in soot. Then using a soft oxygen and acetylene flame slowly heat the part until all the soot has burnt off. This will then be at the correct temperature
Once the correct temperature has been reached, you can quench the part in cold water to to fully anneal to T0 condition or allow to air cool to reach T4(ish) (It's not quite that simple, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb)
Bending or manipulating should be done as soon as possible because the alloy will tend to age harden over the next few days
One of these days when I'm not quite so busy, I'll try and organise an open morning where I'll demonstrate some of the fabrication techniques I use
Simon @ SiFab.co.uk
