Jake,

I've seen a lot of CorTen stuff that ended up being scrapped because people got sick of it drooling rust streaks all over everything beneath it. That tells me it is continually rusting, no matter what the advertising hype says. Further, most ocean freight containers are made of CorTen, and I see a bunchof them rusted away in five to ten years in our marine environment. I'm sure a dry environment without salt air would make a huge difference, of course. Still, I doubt the stuff is worth the extra money when used for structural size pieces.

Keep in mind, all those car bodies you see intact may very well be galvanized. PaintLok, Galvanneal and other brand names of steel sheet are sold for just that purpose, and they work well. Galvanizing over mild steel is better than CorTen, by far. In the long run, it is probably cheaper, too. Is there a galvanizing facility near you? Might be worth looking into.

Here in the tropics, it is fashionable to make everything from hot-dipped galvanized steel. Of course, the guys who do this forget that welding it burns off the zinc and all their stuff fails quickly at the welds. I use plain steel and paint it with 90% zinc primer over a sandblasted surface and then use red oxide primer and automotive paint. That has proven to outlast the poorly finished galvanized stuff by many years. Properly finished galvanized work will probably last the longest of anything, short of stainless or bronze.

For architectural stuff, I would either use mild steel and paint it properly, or bite the bullet and use stainless or bronze (at ten to fifteen times the cost of mild steel). In the long run, your market willl probably decide for you.

That's my two cents worth, and it's worth every cent, too! (grin)

Rich

Jake

I have yet to try out corten, but have seen a number of local sculptures in it that seem to be enduring well. The vast majority of my work is in mild steel with a rust finish because my customers like it that way (both for the colour and the price savings).

I typically accelerate the rust by spraying with ammonium chloride and then sprat the sculpture with a mix of linseed oil and turpentine. Even though the customer has to apply another coat of oil every year, it saves on average $1000-2000 per sculpture on galvanising and painting costs, most of which goes to someone else.

The problem is with public art. No-one wants to have to maintain it so they want corten or galvanising/paint even if they dont like the look of it.

In short, (for my area anyway) big organisations are prepared to pay for low maintenance art, but your average consumer would rather save on the up-front costs.

Peter

Thanks Rich and Peter for your input. I agree with both of your points.

What I'm curious about though, is if the Corten is continually rusting (as proven by the rust streaks around the piece) do you think that it will last appreciably longer than mild steel left untreated. Or more to the point, if the rust runoff wasn't a concern, is there any reason to not use just regular 3/8" thick mild steel(for an art or sculptural piece)? Would it rust away in 5-10years? 30? I've got steel pcs that I've put outside to recycle that haven't eroded that much and some of them have been out there for 2-3 years. Does the Corten rust that much slower to make a difference in 30-50 year span? I realize environment and a whole mess of other factors come into play here in order to give an accurate estimate, but with your experiences what are your thoughts

Jake