Fire tools

Can anyone please tell me what the tools in the photos below are made of, and how best to clean them, as they are a family heirloom going back to the early 1900's.

They are a bit rusty, and look like they have been painted with silverfrost, or chromed, at some stage. I would like to restore them before handing down to my daughter who has just moved in to a cold climate area, and has a slow combustion heater. I was thinking something along the lines of electrolysis or sand blasting.

regards,
Jill

The shovel head will be mild steel plate and the tongs handle and poker handle will be cast iron. The remainder will be wrought iron.

I imagine the frosted look you perceive is due to what ever blackening has been applied - coming off, and revealing the bare steel.

These would originally have had a polished steel finish - which can be difficult to keep rust-free in an environment with a damp climate. Usually frequent use and handling does the job, but the lower extremities that aren't handled often will still often show signs of rusting.

I would hit clean them up with a wire wheel mounted in a bench grinder. After that, you could apply a clear wax polish, or even a graphite polish like Zebright - the stuff that was once applied to black iron stoves on a daily basis (and housewives complain about not having any time nowadays!).

If the rust is really bad, a soak in vinegar or citric acid for a few hours prior to 'softening' on the wire wheel should do the trick.

I think the first step is to remove the loose covering of paint and/or rust. You can do it with acid as suggested by Woodwould, but you should also give it a rinse with an alkali such as washing soda or bicarbonate in water. Or you can skip straight to the next stage & burn off any paint & give them a scrub with a wire brush - the sort with bristles in a wooden handle, not a powered brush as that will tend to blur any details.

One finish that has given me years of service is to then heat the irons untill they go black - nearly but not quite to a dull red (more than that & things could come unstuck) and then rub them down with either 'white' aka colourless candle wax or linseed oil while still hot & the oil/wax smokes - you have to keep at it until the smoking stops. I used rag to put linseed oil on some smithed candlesticks and it is still holding up after 25 years - the oil/wax sets in the oxide layer on the iron & should stop further rusting. Candle wax is not as good as linseed in my opinion as it still looks waxy even when put on at high temperature, but some people like the look.

article-electro
Good article on a electrolytic rust removal

Quote:

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heat the irons untill they go black - nearly but not quite to a dull red (more than that & things could come unstuck) and then rub them down with either 'white' aka colourless candle wax or linseed oil while still hot & the oil/wax smokes - you have to keep at it until the smoking stops.

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bsrlee, are you pulling my leg? :rolleyes:

Thanks Sapling, I have used this technique with some degree of success previously, when I restored a son's 1.2m long swords. ( a long story)

For these fireside tools, I first need to get the rust off, so will use the electrolysis method again.

I have posted the photos of my setup in case anyone can use this sort of thing. The inner tube is a perforated PVC pipe that runs the length of the main tube, and provides electrical separation of the items being treated (connected to the -ve black lead) from the electrode which sits in this tube connected to the +ve red lead.

I suspect that the fireside tools have been chrome plated in the past, so may have to get them bead blasted, and if brslee's method is fair dinkum, I will get a plumber son to get out the oxy and heat it up, and rub some linseed oil in to it. Not sure about the small and fumes from burning linseed oil. This oil has a smell which I have always liked especially rubbing it on kids cricket bats in the past.

regards,
Jill

Nice setup Jill, certainly makes mine look very amateur (plastic wheelie storage bin and the stainless tube bottom off one of our garden lights). It works really well though.

Thanks for the nice comments, Sapling. It came about by lots of thinking and trial and error. Still trying to come up with a good way of doing lots of little things at the same time eg rusted drill bits, screwetc.

Can you please expand further on the use of stainless steel from a lamp? I can't envisage it.

I have also read about the dangers of using stainless steel as an electrode, in relation to the gases released and the residue in the water, whcih should not be poured down the drain

regards,
Jill

The stainless piece is the electrode (+ side) and is an extender or pole for a solar garden light (wife still shaking her head about that:no:).
From what I read on the HTPAA site hydrogen is released on the negative side and oxygen on the positive which when combined can be explosive near an ignition source. A well ventilated area is advised and no smoking. As for the left over rusty water I tip it across the back lawn. We have had quite a dry spell here and have been diverting washing machine water out to our lawn the last few months, the electrolyte is soda ash, is the same as is used in washing powder and has not killed any grass to date, probably the opposite. Remaining gas would be released into the air.
What metal are you using for your electrode?

Jill,
I would keep it simple. Wire brush and or sand to clean back to bare metal. Then brush on some acid rust converter and you will get that black iron look. If you want crome then find a place that does crome. A motorbike restorer will point you in the right direction.
Regards
John

thanks orraloon, this sounds like the way to go.

To easily get rid of the rust and minimise the effort involved, I put it in the electrolysis bath for the day, wiped the converted rust off with a rag, then ran it on a wire brush in the benchgrinder to polish it up. The results look OK, as shown in the photos below. No sign of what I thougth was chrome, which si good news.

The idea of a finish coat of rust converter sounds pretty good. That should stop the surface rust appearing for along while. Wonder how it takes heat?

Do you think that would be OK instead of a chrome plated finish?

regards,
Jill

They look really well. Chroming them would be a big mistake in my opinion. Now that I've seen the close-ups, they're entirely wrought iron (no cast iron handles).

I used to sell quite a lot of brass and steel fire irons when I had the shop and when I got steel ones to this stage, I would buff them with a calico mop mounted on the bench grinder. There was sufficient residual wax in/on the surface of the iron to provide protection for years and they looked like they'd just been well cared for over the years.

They have come up really well. I'm with Woodwould on the buffing idea.

hi Woodwould, they have sat in my shed for the last 25 years after we left the very cold climes of Orange, NSW - no need for open fires in NQ. They are actually a family heirloom with no place to go, until my daughter moved in to a house in SE Qld with a modern slow combustion heater.

Unfortunatley I haven't got a buffing wheel.

I was thinking of rubbing some Ubeaut carnuba wax over them to protect against rust here - what do you reckon? What will happen when they get put in the fire?

regards,
Jill

Hi Sapling, sorry about the delay getting back to you. The best article on electrolysis was on the British Horological Institute Limited web site, but that has been removed, unfortunately.

But this forum has some good ones too; try here for starters :)

I would definitely get rid of the stainless steel anode - it is dangerous, according to most articles I find on it, esp the sediment it leaves behind. But I am not a chemist, so can't comment definitively.

I use a 10mm rod of black steel I bought at a local steel shop - relatively cheap, and lasts forever. I bend it at one corner and keep that part out of the water so that the battery charger alligator clamp does not corrode. Also maintains a good contact surface. I do wire brush the sediment off the anode steel rod from time to time so that the surface area makes good electrrical contact with the electrolyte too

hope this helps,

regards,
Jill