"Jay Pique" wrote in message
...
I saw a guy going over some hot-rolled steel bar with a blow torch
recently. When I asked what he was doing he said he was evaporating
the moisture from it. Sure enough - I watched it myself. The process
is that he'll fabricate the chair, blow torch the whole thing, then
rub beeswax all over it. Seems pretty labor intensive. I'm wondering
if we couldn't just put the whole dozen chairs in our wood kiln for a
few days and achieve the same effect. Any thoughts?

(Note: our kiln has a dehumidifying unit, but only reaches temps of
maybe 100F.)

JP
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Also posted to rec.woodworking.

When you initially point a torch at cold metal the water vapor from the
combustion may condense on the surface, and then as the metal heats the
moisture visibly evaporates. Unless he left the chair outside in the rain or
dew there is no real moisture to evaporate off.

What the blacksmith is doing (whether he know it or not) is getting the
metal hot enough to melt the beeswax to allow it to flow in to all the
cracks and crevices of the chair leaving an attractive and to some extent
rust inhibiting finish. I don't think your 100F kiln will get the chairs
hot enough to do the same thing.

CarlBoyd