The Armour Archive

Ok, maybe the wrong forum, but i cant find any other that has the knowledge... if you make a kettle out of steel, do you have to put tin inside of it to prevent poisoning or is steel safe? and if so, is there something you cant keep in such a vessel?
if anyone happends to know how they used to do to tincoat, that would be appreciated as well...

//Emoll

steel should be fine, unless its a weird steel (like manganese steel or somesuch). As to tinning, tinning was primarily used as a corrosion inhibitor. you COULD tin it, but i dont see why you would HAVE to.

As to how tinning was done, I assume they used a flux, dipping the article into hot tin. Sasha might have more info on HOW to do it, and maybe chef has some info on how it WAS done.

-+G

It's copper and its alloys that need to be tinned - they ARE somwhat toxic if you don't. Steel is ok, otherwise you wouldn't be able to use cast iron frying pans etc. I agree, though, that there may be some strange steel alloys that would need tinning, but most steels available should be ok.

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Egfroth

"I can't help it. I was BORN sneering" - Pooh Bah
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

Tinning the steel kettle should reduce rust, however, which was why so much armor was "silvered".

Steel is good for you. You can actually absorb iron from eating it directly if it's in water etc.

Carbon never hurt anyone. Modern steel has very few impurities so there's not any likely chance of getting anything nasty.

For rust prevention go with fire scale and olive oil.

That's why you leave those black (fire scale) cast iron frying pans a little oily.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

What about galvanized steel?

-Donasian.

Gee, Don, maybe it isn't period!

If you are replicating the cauldron from the Oseberg find, know that they didn't tin it neither, even between the riveted plates. I guess they found remnants of milk between the plates because current theory is that they used buttermilk to seal the chinks. More likely, they made something with milk and it leaked until the holes were patched.

I would use tin anyway, certainly lead-free solder in the joints.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I would use tin anyway, certainly lead-free solder in the joints.</font>

But wouldn't that just melt? Brazing rod is bronze, 90%copper 10% tin, and shouldn't melt over a campfire.

well tin will welt at a fairly low temp, BUT only after it has exhausted its options. Ok...that sounded odd. As long as there is a heatsink available, it probably WONT melt. A heat sink could be a finned aluminum dealiy, or your burnt barley slop. Tin (and most of the other metals) are good conductors of heat. so, if i have a metal pot lined with tin, and apply heat, the metal pot will transmit heat to the tin layer, the tin layer will transmit its heat to the stew. Now if there is no stew, it will begin to melt.

so the moral of my rambling is this: dont get them too hot without stuff in them. Or maybe it should be "do not dry fire" LOL

-+G

-+G

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Donasian:
<B>What about galvanized steel?

-Donasian.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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You don't want to heat galvanized steel, I don't know what it will do to your food, but it will do some bad stuff to your air

Donasian, consider that there is a reason there is no galvanized cookware.

Trace element of zinc is good in nutrition; way too much zinc not good for your system.

[This message has been edited by Konstantin the Red (edited 03-14-2002).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Buran:
<B>Gee, Don, maybe it isn't period!

current theory is that they used buttermilk to seal the chinks. More likely, they made something with milk and it leaked until the holes were patched.

</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I made an iron pot this way (well, mild steel) and made porridge in it and let the residue carbonise over the fire. Didn't get rid of the leaks straight away, but continuous use sealed them up in a fairly short time.

Disregard the big black floating specks in the food - they go away after a while.



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Egfroth

"I can't help it. I was BORN sneering" - Pooh Bah
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos