I've made a basket hook from very old barbwire---flat barbs!  It was already zincless; found it walking around the arroyo

was really interested to see the pic of the knife but I get error 404 on my phone and it won't load on pc. was thinking that barb wire normally comes with a gal coating which could cause issues.
maybe you could use razor wire, might have more carbon for making sharp things

I must admit at this point I'm finding lots of arguing about the topic here and elsewhere, and lots of generalities when it comes to universal zinc truths etc... but can someone please direct me to a document or sticky that's bold enough to tell me if I can burn off a thin layer of zinc on galvanized steel -outdoors and not breathing it -- will it come off and what color or temperature? There are obviously degrees of galvanizing from triple hot dipped and crazy thick, to a shiny, cheapo electroplating job that I see on virtually all steel cable that less mechanically inclined people would think wasn't plated (absence of rust after 6 months in a damp environment but the ends are all rusty? Yeah... But it is surely safe for me to singe off this??

Thanks in advance if you even just have a RTFM .pdf or link.... because all I can find so far in dancing around the subject in extremes from obviously erroneous "Drink milk if you feel funny, otherwise no worries" to "never ever consider forging a knife out of even the thinnest electroplated cable"...

please note my primary interest in forging period is using what's around me in a pinch and knowing how to in a bigger pinch, not simply buying what's best or even consuming gallons of gas looking. I have junk all around for miles but it's not all leaf springs and bare cable magically not too rusted to use but discarded and free.

 

I will definitely be using acid all I can in a case like this... I guess if I'm already scavenging after a social collapse or something I'll come across car batteries with acid along the way of most steel expeditions... but in a pinch just watch the flames burn a funny bluish color while holding at, maybe lighter orange steel temp range, until that stops happening and you've got a clean piece?

The easiest and least toxic way that I know of to get rid of a zinc coating is to soak it in vinegar over night.  Then you don't need to worry about if your going to breath the fumes.

 

Also :

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_fume_fever

 

https://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/weldhlth.html

 

http://www.asse.org/practicespecialties/articles/weldingfumes.php

 

http://www.aws.org/technical/facts/FACT-25.pdf

 

And one last thing.  Drinking milk to alleviate or mediate the effects of fume fever is a myth.  And has no factual basis in science.

I guess all the posts covering this in the safety section weren't enough to convince him.  We had so much information about even deaths from it, it has warranted its own subsection for its discussion.  .  http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/159-zinc-galvanized-and-coatings/

Part of the issue is the variability of human response to exposure; I've met folks who have "done it for years" and others that spent a week in the hospital (can you say "Bankruptcy"?---I thought you could) the first time they welded on galvanized---outside upwind, etc.

 

Since I lost a good friend to this and had the fellow who spent the week in the hospital as a student, (and I *warned* the durn kid about it too!)  I tend to lean on the side of severe warnings and excessive care.  Blacksmithing should *not* be a "dying craft"!