Re old lye... we did this with it: http://journeytoforever.org/at_billhook.html#rust
Rust Here's a good way to remove all rust from steel tools. We've used it a lot in restoring old tools deeply pitted with rust. You need an ordinary car battery charger, lye (Red Devil or any caustic soda -- sodium hydroxide) and a plastic bath -- a standard 25-litre plastic container with one side cut off makes a good bath. Work outside -- the process emits some fumes. WARNING: Lye is highly corrosive, even though this is a weak mixture -- wear rubber gloves, keep clean water handy. Mix two tablespoons of lye with 10 litres of water in the bath. Attach the positive (red) terminal of the battery charger to a spare stainless steel kitchen knife or spoon and put it in the bath. Attach the negative (black) terminal to the rusted tool -- scrape some of the rust off first to make sure it makes good contact. Put the tool in the bath on a stone, not touching the knife. Switch on the charger -- the rusty tool (and maybe the knife) should begin to send off streams of tiny bubbles. Leave it on for 24 hours. If it's a large tool, take it out after 12 hours and attach the terminal to the opposite end to spread the effect. After 24 hours a lot of the rust will have flaked off, and the rest will have been converted to oily black stuff that can easily be scrubbed off in hot, soapy water. The tool emerges clean, all rust removed or converted, even into the deepest pinholes of corrosion. NOTE: We've tried to find out the composition of the oily black deposit left on the tools, but without success. If anyone knows, please tell us -- thanks. _____ ... Nobody ever did tell us. Anyone know? This method works a treat. I just used it on an extremely rusty old manure fork (4-tined, perfect for working compost) that we found here in one of the sheds. Very pleased to see it - it's just the same as the one I use and love, which is English, about a hundred years old, and I've never seen another. Now it's completely derusted, if somewhat pitted and a bit of the shoe for the stock has rusted right away but it can be repaired. Glycerine soap is the best thing for lifting off the oily black stuff, by the way. I really want to know what the black stuff is. We're friends with a master carpenter here, builds and restores old wooden houses, Edo-style and so on, all joints and pegs, no screws or nails, beautiful work. He was showing us the tools he uses the other day at his workshop, fabulous stuff - hand-forged Japanese chisels, planes, adzes, amazing steel, all old. Difficult to find now, and often they're rusty when he finds them. So now he'll use a battery charger and lye - but we both want to know what the black stuff is. Biodegradeable or not? This carpenter's interesting - when he's not building old houses he goes to Vietnam, the Philippines, Nepal, Bolivia or somewhere to work on village biogas schemes. The plastic bag variety usually, Reg Preston's design: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGA/AGAP/FRG/Recycle/biodi g/manual.htm Now we're interested in biogas and he's interested in biodiesel. I think they can fit well together. We'll see. Best Keith ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Make Money Online Auctions! Make $500.00 or We Will Give You Thirty Dollars for Trying! http://us.click.yahoo.com/yMx78A/fNtFAA/i5gGAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
