Good Morning Ladies and Gents,   I seem to have run into a dilemma with a few projects I'm currently working on and need some advice.   Had some concept designs that I've been mulling over in my head and finally decided to actually put them into steel.  They came out nicely, the problem is knowing what I can coat them in to keep them from rusting/corroding.   Looking for something that will hold up for a while, but easy to put on finished pieces.  Most of the pieces have moving parts so coating them completely in an Epoxy/Resin would require me to have to coat them previously to assembly,  which may prove difficult.  Anyways, any advice would be great.  

Thanks Kermit. 

Can you make them from stainless and passivate or electro polish?

I am unfamiliar with some of those terms.  Passivate and Electro Polish?  I could make them from Stainless, but have little experience with working Stainless.  

And a lot of experience working with steel finishes? You don't state that they need to be transparent so what about paint or enamels like they use on appliances or cars?

My go to when I make something that will otherwise require regular customer maintenance is to make from a material that will not have that requirement.  CP 1&2 Ti forges well and temper colours well---but is a pain to drill/grind/mill/etc. I did my camp eating set out of Ti so it would be dishwasher safe. (Or could be boiled in camp.)

 

I would prefer them to be transparent, trying to preserve the "raw blacken'd steel" look.  but the enamel/paint option is something that slipped my mind.  CP 1&2 Ti I'm going to have to look into for sure, I've been wanting to make camp utensils and such for a while now.  

 

These are the two I have made so far, the three-sided one isn't completely assembled yet. 

These are made from some 3/8" Rebar I had lying around.

 

can't beat a traditional hot oil finish. 50/50 linseed oil and turpentine and beeswax applied hot.

clean with denatured alcohol then at a low temp, rub and buff in beeswax.

 

 

 

BTW people may be interested in reading about "Berlin Iron Jewellery": cast iron jewelry traded for gold jewelry, the gold to be used for defense purposes a century+ ago.

I would coat them with Ballistol. Leaves a clear coating, is food safe, dries hard and easy to apply if more coats are needed in the future.