Rust Prevention

[primtechsmith]

Funny thing happened yesterday while I was helping my wife clean the house. My job was the living room. I was dusting the room and found a couple of my "whimsical pieces" had some rust just creeping in on them. So I went back after dusting everything else and used the cloth and some furniture polish. It took the rust right off and left the piece looking pretty darn good! I am sure it won't last, but it worked.

This small thing made me start thinking of how to ward off the rust demons. How do you prevent rust?

[bruce wilcock]

rust never sleeps :cry:

[Ralph]

Place all newly forges pieces in an oven to ensure complete dryness.
Then place in some container and pressurize with an inert gas, argon, Nitrogen or some such. Even then I would not be hopefull about stopping rust.
Remeber iron's natural progression is rust to dust........

Ralph 8)

[Leah]

OOOOH Ralph, you had me going there for a minute. I just knew you had come up with the secret formula for some kind of UV- saltwater- acid rain proof- not to shiney, clearcoat :lol:

[Cory]

I use boiled linseed oil on most of my indooor items, it holds up well and smells good. I also use this on all my stuff in the shop ( tools, leg vises, anvil, hammers) here in Missouri we have a bad humidity problem.In the spring when everything in the shop starts worming up I notice it the most. I also have beeswax but have not used it much. I don't like useing chemicals anymore than I have to but that may change when I get the shop all set up and start getting highend jobs over at the lake with ironwork that is outside. I would like to get some feedback on what others are useing on outside work, other than paint.

[mike-hr]

I've been using Sherwin Williams OPEX clear metal laquer on a lot of stuff, including exterior work. The manager of your local store should be able to give you a sample if he has a bucket onsite. Thin with laquer thinner 50-50, spray on, load it up and install it 20 minutes later. The stuff is very shiny, The manager at my local store called the batch plant and had a bucket made up of low-sheen OPEX. The low sheen batch works very well for me, the iron looks like it has a light coat of oil. I've also brushed it on and had good results. I live in semi-arid country, don't know how long it would last in mostly humid areas..

Before I found OPEX, I was using catalyzed two part paint. It's nasty and uses cyanide as a catalyst. I found that mixing half black and half metallic chrome paint approximates the look of power wire-brushed steel pretty well, but touch-up painting with a brush on the jobsite doesn't lay in well with the sprayed rest of the work.

[coltpax]

i use Metal glo (i think thats what it is) on my knives. Cleans them up nice, and helps against rust, but its a pain when you clean off the extra paste off the knife. It feels as if you mix toothpaste with sand.

[ThomasPowers]

forge stainless or for real rust resistance forge platinum!

[JerryCarroll]

The simplest thing I have found that works well for inside stuff is future floor acrylic finish. It's thin enough to get down in the small places--dries quick and is easy to apply again if you want and you don't lose the forged look. Like all stuff used to finish or coat things you need to clean/degrease/de-scale before applying. Even over a light scaleing it holds up pretty good.

[tompdw]

I use car wax.