[TheForge] post sand blasting

[peter fels & phoebe palmer]

Gosh...i take my reply back! Learned something..thanks.

On 11/5/2010 9:01 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:
>> what about washing it with Phospho right away, would that help?
> That's what I would try.
>
>> I'm not really sure what the phosphoric acid preps actually DO on
>> clean metal, obviously they neutralize oxides, but do they stabilize
>> steel surfaces that DON'T have oxides on them?
> Allegedly, a tightly adhering coat of iron phosphate is formed that
> is to some degree water resistant and rust-preventing.
>
> I had a sterling example.  After attending a workshop by Chris Ray
> where we learned to do repousse and raising over stakes, I did a bunch
> or practice pieces, trying out various ideas I had.  One of these was
> kinda pretty so I pickled it clean in phosphoric acid and just wiped
> it down instead of rinsing.
>
> Fast forward 10 years. That practice piece along with the others have
> been sitting on a shelf in my (mostly) unheated shop a few feet from
> the ocean.  All the others have a heavy orange-ish fur of rust fuzz,
> much more than could be removed with a little steel wool.  That
> phosphated piece is just the way it was when I put it there, grey and
> unblemished.
>
> Fats forward another 10 years.  All the pieces are very rusty.  The
> phosphated one has a few little brown spots and a couple of brownish
> blotches -- possible where I left occasional finger prints on it over
> the years.
>
> Caveat: This was accidental success.  It takes some experimenting
> to get the phosphate just right -- temp, acid concentration etc.  I
> don't seem to have figured out just *exactly* how to get reproducible
> results every time. YMMV, WYSIWYG etc. etc.
>
> FWIW,
> - Mike
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