Galvanized Chainmail maintenance

[Mughi]

I've been working on some 14gauge 3/8" ID chainmail, but just yesterday I ran into a problem. I'd been recently storing it inside a large jar with sealing lid, since now it's large enough to cover my shoulders and upper chest and takes up a lot of desk space. Today upon retrieving it from the jar, I noticed the zinc coating had lost its shine, and has tons of white spots on it, as well as smelling quite foul. The exposed steel from the cuts has not rusted, or been affected in any way.

Does anyone know what this is, what caused it, or how to treat it? This piece already has a significant amount of time invested into it, and I don't fancy the thought of restarting it.

[Cade]

Thats just how Galvanized steel works unfortunately.

You can remove the zinc coating by immersing it in an acid solution, the name escapes me, which will remove the problem, however, then your piece will be prone to rusting. So you will have to oil it and such.

[Force]

Muriatic acid, which can be bought from pool supply stores, will do the trick. It's just watered-down Hydrocholoric Acid, but it will remove zinc easily. Do this outside; the fumes released by the reaction are EXTREMELY poisonous.

[No'Vak]

Muriatic acid, which can be bought from pool supply stores, will do the trick. It's just watered-down Hydrocholoric Acid, but it will remove zinc easily. Do this outside; the fumes released by the reaction are EXTREMELY poisonous.

You can also usually buy it at like hardware stores. Its used for cleaning cement and such.

[fishnjeeps]

Sorry to ressurect a thread, however having built and owned a lot of galvanized chain armor I thought i'd give my $.02.

For cleaning I place the chain armor on either a sealed bag of sand or a small cement mixer filled woth sand and let it tumble for a while until it's shiny enough. You can put the bag of sand in a dryer but make sure it's sealed well and strong so as not to get sand in your dryer. You can get a small cement mixer from Harbour Freight for not much money. That's how I was taught to clean chain. It's deffinately safer than chemical cleaning and possibly cheaper as you can reuse the sand.

[Tiberius Claudius]

In addition to muriatic acid you can let it soak overnight in plain vinegar. If you use acid, remember to add acid to water, NOT the other way around.

I don't think I'll be taking the galvanization off my chain mail, but if it starts to rust or look like crap I'll use the sand method because its historical. It leaves the mail dirty, but a quick rinse and an oil coat have proven useful for solving the problem.

[Magpie Saegar]

I've got a suit of 85% completed 14ga 3/8id galvanized steel chain also, but it's fresh enough that I haven't had any problems. It's nice to hear about these options though, for when/if that time comes.

Two questions, though:

1) What do you mean about putting it on a bag of sand? I don't see how that helps... do you mean putting it IN a bag of sand and then getting it all shaken up? Hmm... I'm being confused.

2) Is there some material that I could make chain with that's better than galvanized steel / doesn't have this issue? I assume if there is that it's probably a bit more expensive, but I'd like to be aware of the options.

[Tiberius Claudius]

Yes, "in" sand is what is meant.

Rolling it around gets the metal and sand rubbing on each other and takes the rust off - just like sand paper but less labor intensive.

And I suppose you could use stainless steel, but I'm not a metal worker so I don't know if it will rust when you cut it.

[fishnjeeps]

You can make chain with most metals. I've seen Gold and silver used as well as stainless, Brass,aluminum, titanium, and copper (only for accents on collars and sleeves) You just need to be sure that your wire is thick enough to stand up to abuse. Not every metal is suited for armor. Galvanised steel is more common as it's cheaper and easier to obtain.

I've not used stainless steel however, Sterling silver will not tarnish easily. I'm in the process of making some sterling silver chain jewelry. It's expensive when compared to galvanised steel, but much more desireable for jewelry. I would be afraid to fight in sterling silver chain armor. However you can chemically turn it to a gunmetal/black color which would look really good as armor.