Descaling with vinegar?

[kerryd]

I finished my first damascus blade yesterday and noticed that I trashed more abrasives removing scale between restackings than I did grinding out the blade. I read a few posts that mentioned using vinegar to remove mill scales from pieces. Does this work on forge scale? I couldn't find anything specific. I'm not folding, I'm grinding and mig welding all my pieces so I can forge weld without flux.

[ThomasPowers]

Mill scale IS forge scale---just usually thicker and more uniform.

[Steve Sells]

Wire brush to remove it as it forms can help a lot also

[templehound]

Vinegar works but, sprinkle water on the anvil while forging.

[billyO]

When doing my damascus, I use an angle grinder to remove most of the scale before cutting and stacking, only using the belt grinder to smooth out the pieces.  I also do most of mine without flux. 

I use vinegar after my final forging of my damascus before grinding.  It usually takes a day or so, however.

Like templehound and Steve said, watering the anvil helps and staying on top of the scale with the wire brush as you forge helps a lot.  

[kerryd]

2 hours ago, templehound said:

Vinegar works but, sprinkle water on the anvil while forging.

I'm doing it almost entirely with a press, but water hammering between heatingswill probably help.

[Frosty]

Water the press dies or maybe use a spray bottle and spritz the billet before pressing? A common practice you see in the big forging press and hammer videos is a person spraying the dies and stock before they cycles. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[kerryd]

Thanks frosty, I'll try that.

 

[kerryd]

Spraying the press plates cooled them off too much. Wood splitter presses are slow. Given my level of experience that may be a good thing. However, plenishing with water at the end of a thinning cycle worked great! My thanks to everyone that put their two cents in. There IS a learning curve.