Soaking a knife in vinegar to remove scale?

Marion David Poff

Marion David Poff

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
Messages
5,403
Hey guys,

I think I remember reading that you can soak a knife in vinegar to remove the scale.

Does it work?

Marion
 
Yes Sir, it works. I have two that I soaked last night. 90% of the scale came off with a Scotchbright pad this morning.
 
I'd like to know this as well I have always been afraid of getting pitting that would take forever to sand out. In my case it's 1084.
 
Very cool.

I will be making my first few knives with a file, so I will need to get the scale off as easy as possible...

M
 
I heard about that too. So the last few that I have made, I thought that I'd try it. I have been using 1080 steel and soaking in the vinegar overnight. The next morning the scale comes right off with a little windex and an old piece of 400 grit paper.
 
The vinegar becomes more aggressive as the temperature increases, so the warmer it is, the less soak time you need. In the summer here, overnight is usually enough. In the winter it can take a few days. Any vinegar will work, it's a mild acid.
 
if your in a hurry you can microwave the vinagar and it works real quick.just dunk the blade in the hot vinagar for a minute,then scrub,rinse and repeat.you can clean up a blade in 10 minutes.
 
It works well for a little etch on wrought iron too.
 
If you're afraid of the vinegar etching too much, try sodium bisulfite.
Look at the local hardware store for the stuff they put in toilets to cut iron in the water.
 
Dan Seaver said:
It works but only if you don't have any flux on the blade. Acid is useless against glass.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I use heated sodium bisulfate as a pickling agent for our non ferrous jewelry and coppersmithing projects. It dissolves the borax based fluxes we use for our soldering processes just fine.

How much scale do you have? I guess to some degree the answer needs to relate to that too.
 
Sodium Bisulphate is also "Spa Down", as in hot tubs. Don Fogg told me about it this summer. I started with 1/3c in 2c H2O. Added another 1/2c to the same batch for the next blade and it worked faster but not hugely. A person can get it on the net cheaper than in a store as a specialty use item.

I forge blades and I'm not likely to grind another one without the scale gone first... too easy to do.

Mike
 
Sodium bisulfATE, not sulfITE, works like a charm. Vinegar has given me mixed results... its just doesn't seem to get the flux.
 
Farmer Phil said:
That's interesting. I use heated sodium bisulfate as a pickling agent for our non ferrous jewelry and coppersmithing projects. It dissolves the borax based fluxes we use for our soldering processes just fine.

How much scale do you have? I guess to some degree the answer needs to relate to that too.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Are you talking about brazing, low temp solder, or high temp solder? Borax doesn't melt until 1,125F. :confused: As far as I know glass is supposed to be impervious to even the strongest acids. :confused:

For my bars I have a lot of flux on them and there for I have a lot of glass too.
 
If you coat the edge in bees wax to prevent it from being completely eaten away, you can get a nice etch on the blade with white vinegar.

etch.jpg
 
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