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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2010 14:14:09 GMT
Can anyone tell me what is the fastest,easiest way to get some surface rust off my chain mail Shirt and Coif. They have been sitting on the dummy to long (no not me) the manniquin by the door and the side by the door got damp and surface rusted during the winter. Thanks all.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2010 15:35:13 GMT
There is no easy way, Marty, all will require some work. The easiest ways are to take a 5 gal plastic paint barrel that you can get at any Home Depot or Lowe's , drop your maille in and add a bag of sand, a little coarser than pool filter sand and a handful or two of gravel. Put the lid on and roll it around on the grass. You can also make a bracket that allows the bucket to roll a turn back and forth, but not any further and attached it to a seesaw at your local park/school. This works really well but you will raise some eyeballs It will still take a while The cheapest easy way is to get a old heavy sack. I've used the large canvas ones that are still in use to carry money to a bank from the Fed. You can get away with several pillow cases inside each other (Oh wait a minute you're married so there is no way in Hell you can get away with it) Tie the closed end with a rope suspended several feet from a limb and several feet from the ground. Place in maille, gravel and sand. Tie the open end closed and either throw the end of the rope over the limb the other end is attached to or attach a pulley to the limb and feed your rope through the pulley. Pull down on the free end off the rope and your end of the sack goes up and gravity forces the maille, gravel and sand to move against either other. Ease up on the rope and everything moves in the opposite direction. The pulley does make this MUCH easier. Continue until you are so bored you could scream and your arms hurt. Take a break and come back and do it again. After a half hour you will notice a definite improvement but to complete it will probably take at least an hour or so. When doing multiple pieces of maille, do them all together as the maille will move against the other maille and the whole operation becomes more efficent.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2010 15:52:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2010 1:59:15 GMT
I like the bag idea, but why not go one step further. Wrap the bag in a heavy blanket or an old piece of canvas. Tie it well so it can't possibly leak. Then throw the whole thing in a clothes dryer at low or no heat? Tumbling around for an hour oughta do it!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2010 2:23:35 GMT
That much weight in your dryer will probably trash it! A typical butted hauberk will weigh slightly under 30 lb add sand and gravel your up to over 50 Lb. Add in the weight of sack plus blanket and lets say 55lb.
Now some may say that a full wet load of clothing would weigh as much but as soon as you turn it on centrifical force and gravity will start to pull out some of the water. The weight of this load will never decrease. I don't think your dryer will take that much strain over that long a period,
What the heck give it a try and let us know what you told your wife or mom. Just remember your armor is tied in a sack! ;D
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2010 12:32:42 GMT
A lot of good ideas some pretty darn easy to do. I would like to find a company with a sandblaster and try that.I should have bought the black mail in the MR catalog,what is the process they use to get it black,I would think after that it wouldnt rust. BTW if I put all that stuff in the drier (actually a good idea in therory)and it broke,I'd be the next thing the wife stuffed in the bag.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2010 12:58:02 GMT
You can repatina it in a vinegar solution, you could use a blueing solution, you could use ferric chloride to darken it also.
There are alot of different ways to force a patina, the cheapest is probably vinegar.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2010 18:20:15 GMT
A barrel, sand and vinegar are all you need, but you probably want something a good deal easier. Imagine having to scrub it by hand, eh? Once you get it clean, see if you can't arrange for it to take a zinc bath...that'll help with the rust from then on.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2010 1:30:16 GMT
A lot of good ideas some pretty darn easy to do. I would like to find a company with a sandblaster and try that.I should have bought the black mail in the MR catalog,what is the process they use to get it black,I would think after that it wouldnt rust. BTW if I put all that stuff in the drier (actually a good idea in therory)and it broke,I'd be the next thing the wife stuffed in the bag. So, just do it at the laundramat! Those big driers can handle anything.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2010 6:46:54 GMT
what about picking up a can or two of brake cleaner from your local autoparts store, spraying the heck out of it, than just a little scrubbing to get it off?
cleans brake parts up no problem...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2010 18:38:15 GMT
Also for the repatina effort...
A blowtorch with the "dragonsbreath" attachment does nicely. Don't let the flame sit anywhere, but pass it across slow and steady.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 22:52:28 GMT
I used to clean my hauberk in an old dryer. Just toss it in with a few scraps of old towel. No sand, gravel or other polishing medium. The rubbing of the rings burnishes the steel. After 15 or 20 minutes take out the towel scraps. They'll be almost black. Put in new scraps and keep on doing this. After about 2 hours the scraps will be just a little dingy and the mail will be sparkling. The towel scraps absorb all the rust and crud. The old dryer never showed signs of strain, but it is very noisy.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2010 13:37:21 GMT
The old dryer never showed signs of strain, but it is very noisy. One can only immagine what sort of racket that created
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