Go to Hobby Town or a similar place for brass sheet or strips if you want to cut brass; It's cheap, easy to cut and it comes up to 2 inches wide. You can double sticky tape a piece to a block of wood to keep it solid while you work.
Go to home depot, lowes, or tractor supply and get the cold rolled steel in many lengths, widths, and thicknesses, and simply whack a chunk off with a hack saw. Sand it to the desired finish and go to cuttin'.