This has to be the rustiest piece of iron that I ever brought home.

[lumbercamp]

I found this chain last October and thought it was too rusty to bring out and clean up. It was a solid mass of rust so I left it where I found it. I happened to be in the same area a few weeks ago and didn't find much else so I carried the chain out. I built a hot fire and put the chain in it. This popped all the rust off. It turned out to be a rather nice chain after all. Streched out it is 6 ft long.

 

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[Michigan Badger]

WOW! Super great story!

Man, you sure make me want to get back out to my lumbercamp sites!

There used to be someone on this forum who insisted that heating iron with a blow torch and dropping it into a bucket of water was the best way to clean it.

Keep digging that awesome iron!

Badger

 

[Kiros32]

Would this work on a rusted piece of CW artillery?

 

[stefen]

Depending on the source of the find should be a clue as to the possible method of cleaning. If the find is a potential CW relic, I would tend to be more cautious because it could be totally destroyed.

 

[Kiros32]

It's about a 1/3 of a cannonball, very rusted, however, my electrolysis is set up for coins...not nearly big enough for large iron. I'd like to get it back to its original state if I could.

 

[lumbercamp]

When I cook my iron in a fire, I leave the item in till it gets red hot. I let it cool down and I'm not concerned about losing any tempering as the items are for display only. I don't think the iron from the lumbering era was tempered very well at all as to the quanity of broken tools that I find. After the item is cool it still has a red cast to it. I don't think you would want your cannon ball to have that color. When I started digging years ago, I used a kerosene fueled flame thrower to burn the rust off. But if fell apart after a couple years. As Michigan Badger said, try heating it as hot as you can and drop in in water. I've never tried it but it sounds like it might work.

 

[lumbercamp]

I have to take back what I said about the iron having a red cast . I cooked two more chains tonight and they came out a natural steel color. The chain I have shown in the photo had a red cast that would not go away. I say, cook your cannon ball and don't worry about harming it.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I know a few untouched Bald Cypress logging camps in the Big Cypress Swamp on island hammocks. Long hike...Not very old, 20's-40's... Pots and pans everywhere and an old waterpump. Railroad tracks removed years ago. I pick up RR spikes when I see them. Can I expect to find anything of value there? Or is it a waste of time?

 

[lumbercamp]

I'm sure you could find something interesting at any camp you dig at. But the camps I dig at are from the 1860's-1910 era. This is when everything was done by hand and horses and oxen were used to haul the logs out. I don't know when chain saws and gas powered machines were used in logging, but that may be the case in camps from the 20's-40's. I'm sure you could find hand tools and other items, but probably not the quantity as left over from earlier years. Seems like they were very careless about leaving thier tools behind.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

That chain came out great.

I have a couple iron relics that have proven tough to clean w/ electrolysis, mostly becasue of too many nooks and crannies. One of them has chain links and is not getting any cleaner with more electroysis.

I might try heating it. It is old, though (1700's to maybe 1820) and I don't want to ruin it. I have thought about using a Dremel to get at the difficult rust, but I am afraid of scratching or gouging the metal.