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A trip to the old ironworks in Scranton totally changed how I think about scale
I was at the Lackawanna County Ironworks museum last weekend, you know, just looking at the old gear. I always thought scale was just this ugly junk you had to wire brush off, a real pain. But seeing the big, old, finished pieces there, the ones that had been outside for maybe a hundred years, it hit me. The scale on them wasn't just rust, it was this deep, almost black crust with these wild red and orange flashes underneath in the cracks. It looked planned, like a finish. The guide said they called it a 'patina' and some folks back then even left it on purpose for looks and a bit of protection. So now I'm back in my shop, looking at my last project (a simple fire poker) and I'm thinking, what if I just left the scale on the scroll work part? Maybe wire brushed the handle clean but let the decorative bit keep that crusty, historic look. Has anyone tried leaving scale on a piece as a design choice, not just as a mistake?
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fox.david14d ago
You mean the guide called it a patina? That's not scale, it's a different kind of oxidation.
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lee9265d ago
So a patina is just a specific type of oxidation? I always thought it was the green stuff on copper. What exactly makes it different from scale on iron?
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