I bought a three pound bag of powdered Citric Acid to strip my bolts and screws. Just a tablespoon or two of it in a pint of water makes a solution strong enough to strip 200-300 3/4” screws overnight. Works Ike a charm. Cheers, John! Whipple

I remember you discussing this in another video, and I started doing it. Made a world of difference in looks. Never thought of making square bolts but that will make it even nicer. Thanks for the video.

We just made a new box for our shop and I was just thinking about what to do with the Zinc bolts. Fantastic timing, thanks John!

Thanks John!

Timing on this video was perfect, I was just looking for some stripped bolts for a project and had forgot about this little trick, Thanks a bunch John.

Nice video, and practical, too. I particularly like your fasteners! Good tip with the vinegar, too. I might add some fresh lemon juice to increase the acidity, then overnight them. Happy Sunday!

.. You are right. That galvanized shiny sticks out. i like to add a slot so they look like slotted heads. a diagonal slot is my favorite...

Very nice and very helpful video John. Thanks so much. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge On. Fab On. Weld On. Keep Making. God Bless.

One of the first things I learned from your channel was this process, and I've been using it ever since. And I sometimes annoy other KZread smiths by suggesting they do so as well when they're using chrome or zinc plated fasteners; as you say, it just doesn't look right on forged items. Thanks!

That was an awesome trick of the trade John, and makes the decorative hinges and hangers and hooks stand out. Thanks for sharing this with us. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.

I started making ladles a while back; I found that blank square box covers from Home Depot sell for about a dollar each and can make a beautiful 4” circle to form into the bowl of the ladle once the zinc is taken off. Home Depot also sells industrial strength vinegar, by the way, about 5 times as strong as household vinegar

If the Smith who passed away from burning off plating is who I think it was, it really suprized me, of all people I would have thought he knew better, I sure miss him,

Your camera work has sure improved a lot. Looking good brother

I sometimes use gun blue to blacken zinc plated hardware. Won’t work with Crome plate however. So I’ll dip the screw or bolt head into the gun blue and it works great. I also pour a small amount for a few fasteners rather than dipping in the bottle. A q tip works well too. Kind Thanks! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania

The modern screws really do stand out and look weird on forged projects. Thanks for the tips!

A vinegar bath will also strip chemical bluing from parts as well.

Yep. Another fun idea is to use regular wood screws that are plated, but make more work for yourself. Learned from Kim Thomas Ironworks to drill a clearance hole through a square piece of 1/4" bar and countersink it. Then drop in your wood screw and use your welder to cover the head, permanently joining the screw to the new "head". Grind/file the bead down flush with the surface of the steel, and you're left with a blank that's ready for forging into some sort of decorative shape. It's a great way to create a large head on an otherwise small screw size. I use #10 wood screws for most everything because I've found that to be a reasonable size and easy for people to drill a pilot hole for. Unfortunately, there are a lot of projects where you want a big decorative head, a rosette that requires a lot of meat to forge with, and that generally means opting for a 1/4" lag screw or similar. Who wants to drill that big a hole in the structure the piece is going on, especially if you have to use an anchor that requires an even larger hole!!! So, Kim's technique allows you to make a very large head on an otherwise small screw. Just be sure to quench the screw to it has some strength in the shaft and pre-drill a hole so you don't have to put a lot of torque on the screw and possibly twist it apart in the shank. Learned that lesson the hard way!

@Vikingwerk

Жыл бұрын

You’re right, that is more work, but a darn good idea!

@threeriversforge1997

Жыл бұрын

@@Vikingwerk More work, but also more opportunity to make really cool designs. 😁

That was a great video! It strikes me (blacksmith pun intended) that whether you have a proper blacksmith workshop or just something that can get hot enough and a hard surface that you can shape the bolts, these reshaped bolts would be easy to sell to woodworkers interested in alternative fasteners. I'm the latter but could also imagine doing the shaping :^) Inspiring video! You're starting 2023 pretty strong already :^)

@BlackBearForgeII

Жыл бұрын

I used to sell thousands of screws and bolts done this way every year. Until I got tired of the repetitious process.

@thomashverring9484

Жыл бұрын

@@BlackBearForgeII Yes, of course! I meant that for someone with a more limited workshop this could be a nice little thing to do :^) And I want to try myself :^D

White vinegar is my thing, soak overnight and rinse in clean water to stop the process or they rust real quick. The vinegar can be used over and over again and when its spent makes great weed killer!

I've had bolts in strong vinegar for several weeks without damaging threads

@Vikingwerk

Жыл бұрын

That reminds me, I need to take the screws I’m stripping out of their vinegar. A month is long enough 😂😂

@grandadz_forge

Жыл бұрын

@@Vikingwerk lol. Warning: you will find other forgotten items down there in the muck

Great Video Army

Really well done. And I agree. You want the fastener to complement the piece, not detract from it. Might even be an upsell to a project to include "vintage" fasteners.

I've watched several shorts, about 15videos, and I like your style. My go to for learning blacksmithing. New subscriber, as I feel blessed to watch and learn. Thank you.

Totally agree. This looks great!

Citric acid (find it cheap at the grocery store with the canning supplies) is another option for stripping off the zinc coating.

Great video... Just even getting the numbers and letters off a hex bolt can make it look better.

What a rare excellent trade!

Definitely start doing this once I run through the assortment I bought from Blacksmith Bolts a couple of years ago. What I really wish I could find is a coarse thread die so that I could make my own hanger blanks out of 1/4" or 5/16" round stock. Blacksmith Bolts sells a variety of hanger blanks, but they are several dollars apiece.

That is very informative, thank you, you’ve given me some ideas for when I build my workshop

Great video John!

Really appreciating your videos! A cautionary tale: In the process of removing rust from an old sledgehammer-head with vinegar, I forgot about it for a week. This resulted in surfacecracks 1 mm deep that I had to grind off 😅 The most substantial cracks formed at the interface between where the surface of the acid had been and the air. Even though I spent tenfold the time to correct my mistake, I can really recommend acid as a way of getting a unique finish on your parts. It comes out satin gray and is an alternative when you dont want to mess with the tempering of eg hardend edges. With a coat of linseed oil on top you get quite good rustprotection. Greetings from Sweden!

Love your work, John and I was watching a video the other day where you mentioned a reference book and, as usual, I can't remember which one it was. If you haven't already, perhaps you could do a video about various reference books that you use for heat treating etc. TIA

Thanks! Zenzai!😉⚒

30% vinegar is available and can be diluted to any strength AND is great for scale removal. I just removed all the scale from 150 ea. 1/2"x 18 rod with a forged 1" 45-degree flattened top to hold plant identifying signs for the local park. Overnight in the straight 30% and a heavy wipe gives a primer-ready clean finish. (Also diluted to 15% makes an excellent environmental weed killer)

Something that I like to do when using the double strength vinegar is use a $10 thrift store slow cooker, or crock pot on the low setting. It speeds up the process for those of us in the colder climates, or for some of us, it can make it possible in the first place. Acids don’t work all that well when they’re cold.😊

I use brick cleaner works great

Something about square heads that just look authentic

Such great info! Do you have any recommendations for larger zinc-coated pieces of steel? I’ve salvaged some from thrown out pieces on the side of the road - old decorative garden pot holders and whatnot, cut them up, and when I went to forge them I quite promptly shut the forge off and let things cool down while I kept my distance, as the steel had turned yellow. Telltale sign that it’s zinc coated. Most of the pieces are about 2 feet long, only about 1/4” square - good for small hooks and such, but twisted in its original form, so they won’t sit flat in a bath of any kind. I guess just get more vinegar and an even larger container? Thank you again!

Для снятия цинкового покрытия с болтов замачиваю в электролите для аккумуляторов(серная кислота с водой), процесс протекает намного быстрее. Далее надо нейтрализовать кислоту: в другую ёмкость налить воды поместить туда болты и добавить пищевой соды.

You are right about not being worth it to burn that stuff off. I breathed in a lot of heavy metals in Iraq and my lungs are almost all scar tissue. I cannot breath well and I do not tempt it with anything. I even leave things soaking in vinegar or acid outside to avoid the fumes - either stripping a finish off plated items or etching Damascus.

Все генеальное просто. Спасибо большое за видео

Don't you still have zinc off-gasses to worry about?

@BlackBearForgeII

Ай бұрын

Stripping the zinc in an acid bath prior to forging removes all of the zinc so there is nothing to off gas. Another option is to start with unplated bolts.

How would you make a threaded square head bolt or screw thread please

@BlackBearForgeII

Жыл бұрын

You can use this same technique for stripping the zinc off store bought bolts or if you want to start from scratch, I talk about it in this video - kzread.info/dash/bejne/p6assMSraK_UecY.html

@richardwakelin843

Жыл бұрын

@BlackBearForgeII great video, thank you, for some reason I didn't know you was going to use a tap & die, doh, that's just me over thinking things

You can get 30% vinegar online; much cheeper; just delute it down to the strength you need.

thar was 6% i get get hold of 24 % wher i live

Why not just take iron rod and make the fasteners from that?

If you like burning zinc off of bolts, google zinc chills, and stop doing it.