Old iron

Why is it called an iron? Because it literally was. Filled with burning coals, it was used all across Serbia to press the wrinkles out of clothes. Even today, most houses have one. Somewhere on a shelf. Many traditional restaurants keep them as mementos of times long gone.

Idea

My wife's reaction to seeing it—I want one. I remember seeing one as a young boy but we no longer had it. So off to the flea market I went.

I got an old, rusty one (what other kind?!) for less than 10 euros.

Challenge

She wanted to use it as a box to store precious things. But it was so rusty it left brownish red marks on everything. So it needed to be polished and painted. But first I had to remove the rust.

Outcome

I used a chemical rust remover and left it for almost a day. It ate into the rust but was hard to remove with cloth and wipes.

I started experimenting with sandpaper of different grain sizes. The inside was hard to reach because the interior of the old iron was not flat. It had ridges to give it more structure and weight.

Enter the wire brush attachments. I ended up using different shapes of it on my Bosch power drill. It got into every nook and cranny and polished the inside and the outside back to the silverish sheen.

Final step was to paint it. Since I was always wary of the brush-using arts and crafts due to its liquid messiness, I opted for a cop-out approach—spray in a can.

Learnings

It actually turned out kind of cute. And I personally liked the metallic colors. Wife was very happy and ended up using it as a nail polish box keeping it with her other cosmetics.

What I would have done differently:

1. I don't know if the chemical rust remover was necessary. And certainly not for that long. It might have eaten into the iron as well.
2. Skipped the sandpaper and rasps. I'd go directly for the wire brush. It was so effective and cleaned it up well.
3. I should have polished and painted the wooden handle first, then protected it before the spray. I managed to somewhat do this for the inside (silver) and the outside (copper) but the wood stayed kind of unfinished.

Most importantly, as this was early into my workshop-building process, it allowed me to practice using different tools and materials.

I also had fun working in the shop and not the office while listening to some Stevie Ray Vaughan—a benefit in itself.

With the side quest over, it was time to go back to welding!