Antique bits

[Harry Houdini]

Hi, I've collected a few dozen antique bits and stirrups during lockdown and am looking for advice on their care. I have used Citric Acid to remove rust (amazing stuff!) & am curious what I should use to prevent rust returning. I don't want to use paint as the metal has a lovely natural tone.
How do I distinguish between Iron and steel, and how do I distinguish between handforged and cast bits? I have several old books on bits and saddlery (Elwyn Hartley Edwards, Diane Tuke, Benjamin Latchford) but although they recommend handforged there are no photos to guide me and I can't find information online.

 

[GreyMane]

Hi, possibly these people might be able to help, or put you in touch with someone

https://www.museumofthehorse.org/

 

[Keith_Beef]

For protecting old and antique tools against corrosion I use Renaissance Wax.

A couple of thoughts, though...

In general, it's better to err on the side of caution when cleaning or restoring antiques, especially if you think you might want to sell them on later as cleaning can reduce the value.

Search on the internet to find out what techniques museum conservators use.

If you're really not that fussed about keeping the objects in a condition suitable for resale at their highest possible price, you can use various acids to etch into the surface of the metal to grain in wrought iron and to reveal lines where one piece of metal has been welded to another (or folded back on itself and then welded to increase its thickness).

Before etching, you need to fully clean off any existing surface treatments and oils or greases. In the past, I would have used trichloroethane, but I've not seen it for sale for a while; nowadays I use acetone.

 

[pansymouse]

I give them a light coating of 3 in 1 oil.

 

[Harry Houdini]

For protecting old and antique tools against corrosion I use Renaissance Wax.

A couple of thoughts, though...

In general, it's better to err on the side of caution when cleaning or restoring antiques, especially if you think you might want to sell them on later as cleaning can reduce the value.

Search on the internet to find out what techniques museum conservators use.

If you're really not that fussed about keeping the objects in a condition suitable for resale at their highest possible price, you can use various acids to etch into the surface of the metal to grain in wrought iron and to reveal lines where one piece of metal has been welded to another (or folded back on itself and then welded to increase its thickness).

Before etching, you need to fully clean off any existing surface treatments and oils or greases. In the past, I would have used trichloroethane, but I've not seen it for sale for a while; nowadays I use acetone.

Thank you, is there a way to distinguish between iron and steel?

 

[Keith_Beef]

Thank you, is there a way to distinguish between iron and steel?

Well, what is usually called "iron" is never pure iron; cast iron and wrought iron contain carbon plus a few impurities (mostly sulphur and phosphorous, but other elements, too) in variable percentages. Cast iron can contain up to 4% carbon.

The most common way of identifying different types of iron and steel is to do a spark test. This involves bringing the material to be tested against a grinding wheel or belt, and observing the sparks thrown off. The length, size, colour and brightness of the sparks gives an indication mostly of the carbon content of the material, plus with experience some indication of other elements present in the alloy...

I can't think, off the top of my head, of a non-destructive way of identifying the material, other than perhaps Raman spectroscopy. I don't know just how precise or affordable this is, but seem to remember that there was a Kickstarter a few years ago to get a kind of hand-held scanner made.