A couple of bits of advice on your stainless steel project. The 316L is definitely the right alloy for marine exposure. To minimize carbide precipitation rusting, passivating and/or electropolishing are a good idea. Passivation is possible to do yourself, using citric acid. I believe a 20% solution of citric acid in water at about 140 degrees willdo the job. You need to pickle the thing for an hour or so to get the results you need.
If there is an outfit in your area that does electropolishing, they can do the pickling ofr you, probably. Electropolishing willalso "passivate" the surface, as it etches off the surface, leaving fresh metal.
When you wire wheeled the previous piece, did you use a stainless steel wheel? If not, you contaminated the surface by mechanically wiping iron onto it from the wire wheel. The same thing happens with your hammer and anvil - they deposit iron on the surface. Thorough wire wheeling with a stainless steel wire wheel should remove all contamination from the forging process, though.
The guy who probably know the most about this is Ries Niemi, the Seattle area sculptor. You might look him up and ask him, he's a very helpful guy.
Welcome to ArtMetal! A
Welcome to ArtMetal!
A couple of bits of advice on your stainless steel project. The 316L is definitely the right alloy for marine exposure. To minimize carbide precipitation rusting, passivating and/or electropolishing are a good idea. Passivation is possible to do yourself, using citric acid. I believe a 20% solution of citric acid in water at about 140 degrees willdo the job. You need to pickle the thing for an hour or so to get the results you need.
If there is an outfit in your area that does electropolishing, they can do the pickling ofr you, probably. Electropolishing willalso "passivate" the surface, as it etches off the surface, leaving fresh metal.
When you wire wheeled the previous piece, did you use a stainless steel wheel? If not, you contaminated the surface by mechanically wiping iron onto it from the wire wheel. The same thing happens with your hammer and anvil - they deposit iron on the surface. Thorough wire wheeling with a stainless steel wire wheel should remove all contamination from the forging process, though.
The guy who probably know the most about this is Ries Niemi, the Seattle area sculptor. You might look him up and ask him, he's a very helpful guy.