Does anyone have a formula for a natural(meaning organic material) rust proof coat to put on iron? I heard of one that had beeswax, turpentine and some other ingredients in it, but I don't know if there are other and/or better options.

Beeswax, turpentine and boiled linseed oil.

Recipe here (amongst other places)
:

It's great for indoor finishes, but won't hold up to outdoors abuse. Might need to reapply it if the piece sees heavy use.

Tar

Tar

Or maybe chrome!

Or maybe chrome!

Remember Grant "chrome don`t get ya home",besides black is the new chrome so that brings us back to tar.
Guess I`ll have to ride my bike to Cali and have it dipped in one of the pits out there. ;)

Should be plenty of pine tar in Maine!

When I got started in this game, I used boiled linseed oil, but sometimes if the metal was overheated, I got a dark olive drab color. I have seen enough olive drab, so forget that one! Then I tried mixing beeswax, turps, and linseed oil. It was time consuming and noxious. Presently, I use old fashioned Johnson's paste floor wax, applied with a cotton rag. It works, and I apply it in open air or with the doors and windows open. I normally apply it when the metal is about 750-800ºF. The heat is above the temper rainbow, 630ºF, and below a black heat about 850ºF [?]. I'm in New Mexico, so on interior work, it lasts up to 5 years, maybe longer. In the saline environments of Houston or San Pedro, I don't think it would last long, at all. I believe the guru on anvilfire calls what happens when applied, "caramelizing" a culinary term...but it also means that when heat is applied, the material turns a dark color. In any event, you'll get a semi-gloss black finish.

For exterior work, it's advisable to use primer and paint.

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Johnsons Paste Wax is my weapon of choice too.....Do be careful about the fumes though. Well ventilated is the rule...

Traditional Japanese ironwork on chests (Tansu) is treated by heating the iron to a red heat and daubing it with raw cotton saturated in rapeseed oil. The black coating protects the iron from rust.

More expensive chests had ironwork coated with lacquer (real lacquer from the sap of a tree related to poisonous sumac) and heating the iron to turn the lacquer from light brown to black.

For details see Heineken (1981) Tansu, Weathwrhill Press.

Grant

Remember Grant "chrome don`t get ya home",besides black is the new chrome so that brings us back to tar.
Guess I`ll have to ride my bike to Cali and have it dipped in one of the pits out there.

Will you be adding feathers? You could do a Dedalus number on it!

Ian

Sorry, for those that are'nt ingo the Homers Iliad. Dadalus was the one that built(amongst many other things) the wings for Icarus who then proceeded to fly too close to the sun.
Ian

That brings to mind Theophilus mentioning in Divers Arts (circa 1120 A.D.) a finish for iron work consisting of burning feathers onto it to provide a dark coating on it.

Should be plenty of pine tar in Maine!

Pine tar is dark brown,we want black.
Besides,pine tar makes you smell like a carpenter.No self respecting blacksmith wants to smell like a woodbutcher,it ruins the mystique.

Nope,not gonna go for the Daedalus theme.At the speeds I like to travel that would lead to liftoff.Much less operator control available once the wheels leave the ground. DAMHIKT