old railroad spikes

[moncton golden flames]

i just picked up a dozen old railroad spikes from the old line that ran from cheadle to calgary (over 100 years old) for a blacksmithing project.

they are quite nasty looking and i'm wondering if anybody knows the best way to clean them up a bit? what solvents, tools, etc.....

[Methanolic]

wire brush and varsol.

[RougeUnderoos]

Put 'em in a potato sack full of pennies and then place them in warm bleach for 6 - 6.25 minutes.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Put 'em in a potato sack full of pennies and then place them in warm bleach for 6 - 6.25 minutes.

You mind explaining why this will work?

[Hack&Lube]

Start dropping them into 2L bottles of coke?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by zamler

You mind explaining why this will work?

I am guessing pennies have more reduction potential than steel spikes? Bleach is a strong oxidizer to cause other metals to be oxidized. If you have pennies mixed into the spikes, it might grab the electrons from the iron oxide on the spikes and migrate them to the pennies? But I don't know what modern pennies are made out of.

edit - RougeUnderoos is full of BS & so am I

[stampsx2]

^^^ He just want's to clean the rust off not disolve them.

[zamler]

I've had good luck with phosphoric acid (Canadian Tire sells such products known as "rust converters" and the like). The rust gets converted to a hard, black coating. You remove that, and do it again until you get the result you want. A wire brush on a bench grinder is the best way to clean those up in conjunction with the phosphoric acid. (use eye protection!!!!!!)

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by zamler

You mind explaining why this will work?

Simple chemistry.

Although I should have specified that you need American pennies minted prior to 1986 (newer pennies contain trace elements of aurora borealis, which might embrittle of the railroad spikes).

[zamler]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

newer pennies contain trace elements of aurora borealis

Really?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by zamler

Really?

Can you prove that they don't contain trace elements of aurora borealis?

Didn't think so.

[moncton golden flames]

nm

[stampsx2]

Am I missing something here? I thought this was aurora borealis.

[metallicat]

Just to make sure, you are not talking about the wooden railroad ties, are you?

[sclitheroe]

One of my prized possessions is a spike I found while riding the Kettle Valley railway.

I can’t seem to scrub the aurora borealis off it though, it’s like its baked on there

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Just to make sure, you are not talking about the wooden railroad ties, are you?

iron rail spikes

[TRIX]

weird i just got some too, from a different place of course, i was just thinking of wire brushing them but might bead blast them instead, if it works well i'll post pics

[FlamesAddiction]

Wait until midnight on a full moon and then pee on a rock and bury it under a pine in the forest. Go to home, click your heals three times and go to bed.

The following day, retreive the rock and wear it in your hat while using a wire brush and CLR to scrub the spikes.

Works every time!

[ma-skis.com]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Simple chemistry.

Although I should have specified that you need American pennies minted prior to 1986 (newer pennies contain trace elements of aurora borealis, which might embrittle of the railroad spikes).

You could just grab some spare wire in your house if you got it lying around, speaker cable, house wiring anything really, odds are it's made of copper too.

[Nage Waza]

Why clean them? Most people degrade their old property trying to 'fix' them up.