dpb wrote:
Jay Pique wrote:
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.

Don't see why not if he's not counting on the torch flame doing
something--certainly the kiln heat would be sufficient for surface
moisture.

--
Could he be burning the milling oil from the steel before he paints it?
That would be the quickest way I could think of to get rid of it
completely.

I don't think the blow torch would be hot enough to remove the stress
from the metal in the recent fabricated piece.