Forge Scale removal

D

Dakota 11

Joined
Apr 14, 2006
Messages
252
well this weekend i forged out 4 blades from w2. i got them all set up and annealed. Today i started to grind the scale of and start doing my profile and man it seems like i am eating up belts. I know the steel is butter soft, so has to be the scale. Do u folks do anything special with the scale like acid bath it off? or maybe use a a hard wheel grinder? Cant be my imagination i dont think but i chewed up 2 ceramic norton belts pretty quick will scale do that? Thanks Pete
 
If I have time I set the blade in a 4" PVC pipe with end cap... filled with Vinegar (the kind you buy at the grocery store). Leave it overnight and the scale will be eaten away in a day.

If I don't have time, I just use a serrated 10" wheel on the KMG and a ceramic belt. Speed is full bore with the 2hp motor and that also includes using the bigger 6" drive wheel. I'm just taking very light bites to eat through the scale and knock down some of the stock removal for when I go to the surface grinder/ 9" disc/ platen on KMG.
 
Pete, you learned that lesson the hard way, as I did years ago. Don't try to remove scale with belts, any belts. It's just not going to happen very fast, and will cost several belts.
Ok, there's two ways that I use; One is to grind it off, with either one of the angled grinders with a 5 or 7" course disk, or a heavy duty regular stationary grinder, with a big, 36 grit rock on it. The other way I've use with good results is to leave the blade submerged in vinegar overnight. There is 5%, and 9% vinegar, so go for the 9%, and do not dilute.

Hope this helps!:)
 
I soak all my blades in vinegar over night.Gets most of the scale off.
I think it was Don Hanson that posted this a while back if I remember right.
You may want to find a deep dish and set your knife on its edge somehow and fill it till the knife is submerged.
The first time I tried it I used a shallow dish and layed the knife flat on its side to save on vinegar.I beleive it was bottom side of the blade that the scale really didnt come off too well.

oops,you guys beat me to it.
 
cool i have pvc pipe and a gallon of vinegar here from other stuff. i knew it couldnt be my imagination with the belts. well at least some of my stimlus check went to tru grit for new belts.
 
I recently had a heavily scaled blade that took a 3 day soak in vinegar. All the scale came off with a simple wire brush.

There is a belt called a bubble belt, I think made by Norton, that is specifically made for removing scale. It looks like gravel but works well.

Gene
 
i bead blast alot of scale off in my shop. my cabinet will hold up to prob 20-25'' long blade.
 
The vinegar thing works amazingly well. I can rough-grind a blade now from a forged blank in 30 minutes to an hour, where it used to take a lot longer...

When you guys do a vinegar soak, does the blade come out clean (meaning at least somewhat shiny) or is it still black and covered with gunk? My descaling bath right now is dilluted vinegar, and I'm wondering if I can't do even better with the straight stuff...

Josh
 
rhrocker said:
Pete, you learned that lesson the hard way, as I did years ago. Don't try to remove scale with belts, any belts. It's just not going to happen very fast, and will cost several belts.
Ok, there's two ways that I use; One is to grind it off, with either one of the angled grinders with a 5 or 7" course disk, or a heavy duty regular stationary grinder, with a big, 36 grit rock on it. The other way I've use with good results is to leave the blade submerged in vinegar overnight. There is 5%, and 9% vinegar, so go for the 9%, and do not dilute.

Hope this helps!:)
Click to expand...

Where do you get 9% stuff, maybe a link could help. every thing around here is 5%
vern
 
By far the worst scale I have run across is from L-6. Believe its the nickel carbides that make scale so tough to remove. Sand blasting seems to work the best for it but an angle grinder works great for all the other steels. You may want to try forging wet by wetting down the surface of the anvil and dipping your hammer in water. Its not fool proof but does seem to help.
 
I like and use the vinegar and the belt grinder combo.

If you do use the vinegar over night or eight hours, the black will rub off with your fingers, your grinder will quickly take it down to shape.

If you forget and leave it too long you will not have enough blade to grind.
You can quickly gouge the steel with the side body grinder.
 
Instead of a dish I like to use a ziploc to save on vinegar. As u can tell, I'm pretty CHeap!!
Nathan
 
v-6 said:
Where do you get 9% stuff, maybe a link could help. every thing around here is 5%
vern
Click to expand...

V-6, Wally World(Walmart) Uvalde, Texas, is where I got the 9%, you can also check places like ACE. Also, I forgot to mention, but since vinegar is acidic, after I soak the blade I wash the blade real good in tap water, then put it in TSP and stir it around some, then dry it off and go to work on it.
 
I use sodium bisulfate
it works really well for a discovery etch to peek at your damascus pattern

TSP = TriSodium Phosphate
Painters use it as a prewash

-page
 
I have Harvey Dean's flat grinding video, and it shows him getting the scale off his rough forged blades with an angle grinder. He uses the grinder to start to cut in the plunge cuts too, so it's kind of a dual purpose job.

If an angle grinder is good enough for Mastersmith Harvey Dean, then it's good enough for me.

I'll have to try the vinegar.

They make a black anti-scale powder that I saw Terry Primos use on his tutorials. Is that stuff more trouble than it's worth?
 
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