Removing Stainless Discoloration Heat Treat

JRB Blades

JRB Blades

Well-Known Member
Hello all, looking to see what the best way is to remove this discoloration from the heat treatment of this AEBL stainless. I do have some texturing along the flats of the knife I'd rather not sand away if possible. Didn't know if buffing wheel or scotchbrite wheel would be best.

Thanks!

Stainless Discoloration.jpg
 
I keep an 8 inch brass straight wire wheel on a bench grinder and that does a decent job.

You NEED to use eye protection with a wire wheel on a bench grinder. The wires fly off at very high speed. Someone at one of my relatives shops had a steel wire fly off a wire wheel on a pedestal grinder and blind them in one eye.

Anyway - they work well.

I also started playing with one of these the other day. https://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-150-grit-shaft-mounted-wheel-brush-91372.html

I mounted a drill chuck on the end of one of the bench grinders and have that chucked in it. Seems to do a good job cleaning up metal.
 
Abrasive blasting with a very mild abrasive (baking soda blasting, maybe) could work well. Just for experimentation, you can get a cheap hopper fed sand blasting gun. One with the tank for the abrasive mounted on top of the gun. I've used one for soda blasting before. I think they use a lot of air - not sure, though, since I was using a fairly large compressor.
 
tkroenlein said:
Heat tint remover. Lots of what I've used are used with electricity. Here's one I found that is stand alone.

Stainless Weld Heat Tint Remover | Ron-Son’s Torch Repairs & Sales Ltd.

2-in-1 product that pickles and passivates in one step.
ronsonstorch.com ronsonstorch.com
Click to expand...
Very interesting. I was fabricating some stainless steel parts for fresh water marine use (trolling motor mount) today and ended up just sanding the HAZ around the welds with a pneumatic DA sander. I plan on abrasive blasting the parts with silica sand when I'm done with the "hot work". I have to straighten out one part that I made a big "OOPS" on. I didn't have the part constrained enough when I welded it, so it warped pretty bad.
 
52 Ford said:
Very interesting. I was fabricating some stainless steel parts for fresh water marine use (trolling motor mount) today and ended up just sanding the HAZ around the welds with a pneumatic DA sander. I plan on abrasive blasting the parts with silica sand when I'm done with the "hot work". I have to straighten out one part that I made a big "OOPS" on. I didn't have the part constrained enough when I welded it, so it warped pretty bad.
Click to expand...
If'n I was a pro fabricator, this is the machine I'd use. Simple and cheap. Works like the berries.

Welding Heat Tint Removal System W/ Spoon Applicator

The Dynaflux® HTR500S heat tint system removes blue welding heat tint stain from stainless steel with a spoon applicator at weldingdirect.com.
weldingdirect.com
 
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