[TheForge] More stainless pot repair info

[Ries Niemi]

Okay- assuming it is 300 series stainless- Annealling wont occur unless 
it is HOT- like red hot, man.
Then you water quench, and it gets softer, but its still stainless, and 
it still isnt gonna move real easy.
I can notice a difference in 1/2" round stainless bar when I anneal it, 
and then try to hand bend it on the hossfeld. It is noticeably easier 
to bend, but you sure cant bend it around your neck into a pretzel.
And assuming it is only about 16ga or so, like most stainless pots, 
(many are a lot thinner) it will probably warp and oil can when you 
heat it that hot.
But it might be some other alloy of stainless- there are a couple of 
hundred of them. And in that case, you might notice no difference at 
all when heating it.

Messing with a nice looking factory finish, that was engineered from 
the get-go with the alloy, finish, and tooling all planned out to make 
500 pieces an hour- its dangerous. You might get lucky, and find its 
easy to fix. Or you might ruin the pot.
How much does a new one cost?
Or are you just trying it to see if you can?

After you get it done, and you want to get it back to shiny, thats a 
whole nother problem.
Some acids will work. nasty stuff, dangerous and smelly. Nitric is what 
I have heard. But it is gonna be hard to match the existing finish.
Sandblasting, then wire brushing, then maybe a scotchbrite pad on a 
grinder- that would work.

I usually have my stainless electropolished. That would take out the 
discoloration. But my electropolisher has a 75 dollar minimum. You 
could buy a pretty nice pot for that, plus whatever your time is worth.

How about you do a decorative finish on it, by heating it in polka dots 
or some other pattern with an OA torch? Make it arty, since you cant 
duplicate the work of the original maker.
Remember- the pot might only have cost 10 bucks, but the factory that 
made could have cost a million or two. Hard to do the work they do with 
that million dollars worth of equipment with a mapp torch and a hammer.

but try it- whats the worst that could happen, right?

ries