Wrought Iron

Keith Willis

Keith Willis

Well-Known Member
How do you finish wrought iron

What process do you guy's use for finishing wrought?
Thanks,

God bless,Keith
 
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I have the same question . I have some and sure exactly what to do with it , I did notice that it is prettty hard to grind.
 
I sand down to 600 grit and etch in Ferric. I will usually do 5-10 minute soaks in the Ferric hitting it with 0000 steel wool between soaks until I get the depth of etch that I am looking for. -Burton
 
I finish pretty much the same as Burton. Etch with Ferric, scrub with 0000 steel wool soaked in white viniger. After getting the etch I want I clean with windex and apply a coat of reaissance wax.
 
I use the ferric 3 parts distilled water to 1 part ferric and this seems to be a good mix. -Burton
 
Any experience using Muriatic Acid? I would rather not take up collecting all these wicked acids if possible...LOL. What I have is 31.45% Hydrochloric, standard stuff.

Thanks,
Eric
 
Muratic acid is nothing but the old timey name for hydrochloric acid. Mix it with potassium nitrate at the rate of one cup per gallon of muratic acid and you get aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, which Jim Hrisoulas likes for putting a brown patina on steel and an acid finish on wood. Straight white vineagar is a lot easier to come by and safer to use. The big problem with making aqua regia from muratic acid is trying to find potassium nitrate. I guess that Home Land Security is afraid of people making gun powder in their basments and it has dissappeared from pharmacy shelves and I have yet to find a web site that will sell it to private individuals.

Doug Lester
 
Doug, thanks for that recipe. I have not been able to find nitric acid to use for a the slow rust treatment so used just muratic. This recipe should do the job. Potassium Nitrate is on the shelf at Lowe's, it is stump remover. I have used it for bluing. Now I can make aqua regia.
Thank you for sharing!!
Alden

To answer the original question; I also finish to at least 600 grit and dunk in ferric chloride, pull it out and rub it down with 1500 grit paper, and repeat until the desire finish is achieved. A dilute ferric chloride gives a crisper etch because is does not aggresively attack the metal. On damascus the pattern is brought out better with the dilute mixture as well. A strong etchant eats everything down rapidly so the pattern is washed out.
 
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Thanks, guys for sharing I got some new ideas from all this. :les:

I was hoping someone maybe had a short cycle time figured out for the Muratic Acid that might work. The nasty stuff is needed for Damasteel since the info indicates ferric chloride does not etch it well.

Eric
 
Doug Lester said:
Muratic acid is nothing but the old timey name for hydrochloric acid. Mix it with potassium nitrate at the rate of one cup per gallon of muratic acid and you get aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, which Jim Hrisoulas likes for putting a brown patina on steel and an acid finish on wood. Straight white vineagar is a lot easier to come by and safer to use. The big problem with making aqua regia from muratic acid is trying to find potassium nitrate. I guess that Home Land Security is afraid of people making gun powder in their basments and it has dissappeared from pharmacy shelves and I have yet to find a web site that will sell it to private individuals.

Doug Lester
Click to expand...

Hey Doug how it going, you can still get ingredients for black powder, Not sure if its legal or not in some states?? check it out . http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/foxfire5.html
 
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Eric, I do not know what steels Damasteel is constructed from, but most damascus makers use ferric chloride to etch their steel. A short time in a strong acid will etch for sure, but will not provide the best pattern. A slow etch will generally look better. Test drive your steel in muratic and also in a dilute ferric chloride mix to see. The ferric will probably be more subtle but sharper definition between the steels.
The same with wrought iron. You'll get softly rounded changes in elevation, verses sharp deep pits with jagged edges.
~Alden
 
Thanks, Alden. I'll give Lowes a look-see. The recipe for Aqua Regia came from a man who used it to salvage gold from printed circuits. I had the same problem with nitric acid. An etching supply store used to sell it diluted in one liter bottles. Now all they carry is 1N in four liter bottles and I just don't want that much of that strong of acid laying around the house.

Doug Lester
 
Doug Lester said:
Muratic acid is nothing but the old timey name for hydrochloric acid. Mix it with potassium nitrate at the rate of one cup per gallon of muratic acid and you get aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, which Jim Hrisoulas likes for putting a brown patina on steel and an acid finish on wood. Straight white vineagar is a lot easier to come by and safer to use. The big problem with making aqua regia from muratic acid is trying to find potassium nitrate. I guess that Home Land Security is afraid of people making gun powder in their basments and it has dissappeared from pharmacy shelves and I have yet to find a web site that will sell it to private individuals.

Doug Lester
Click to expand...

It's impossible to get here in Canada...damn 9-11 changed a lot of things. I would love to get some for nitre bluing..

As far as I know, you can still get it in the USA as "Grants Stump Remover" It's used to speed bacterial decomposition of the tree stumps by adding nitrogen.
 
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