EASY CARBON SCALE REMOVAL?

[kansas stik man]

i have been forging some blades and when i am happy with final shape i anneal them but when i pull them out there is scale on them. whats the best way to remove the scale for working the blade.

[Emmons]

A over night soak in vingar will remove most of it.

[akaboomer]

I soak them in Hydrocloric Acid for a while. What that leaves comes off on a wire brush wheel. Lots of guys just grind them. So I have also forged them a little thick and used an angle grinder with a flap disc before I move on to profiling the blade.

Chris

[gables]

I have not tried it but some people soak the blade in bisodium sulfate. I bought some and it was labelled as PH decreaser. Here are a couple of threads from the ABS forum that might help.

I do use a snagging wheel, a cone shaped grinding stone, on my angle grinder as mentioned in the below grinding thread. I got my from Supergrit abrasives.


http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/index.php?/topic/460-controlling-scale/

http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/index.php?/topic/369-grinding-belts-time-savers/

[kbaknife]

Sodium bisulfate.
Not Bisodium sulfate.

[madness522]

I use an old 36 or 60 grit belt and grind it off.