Making Iron stanchions

Don Case

Don Case

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I'm making Iron stanchions for around the companionway. I'm guessing that they would be about an inch in diameter so that's .021" in 1:48. I have some annealed steel wire about that size that is easy to form and takes blackening well but it isn't very sturdy. I also have some nice stiff piano/fishing wire but it won't take blackening and it's way harder to get a small eye. I guess it's stainless. If I use the annealed steel I'm concerned about the fragility, I think they would constantly get bent over and I would never get the rope "railing" tensioned enough. Are these my only options for these stanchions or is there something I have missed?
 
I will soon have the same issue and would like to know what other builders use and or do to solve this issue.
 
I used blackened or painted brass wire, which is soft enough to form eyes on. One of the long term problems with steel is that after many years, it rusts, whoch pops off the paint, and it produces black stains in wood it is in contact with, known as iron poisoning.
 
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
I used blackened or painted brass wire, which is soft enough to form eyes on. One of the long term problems with steel is that after many years, it rusts, whoch pops off the paint, and it produces black stains in wood it is in contact with, known as iron poisoning.
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Oops, here I thought I was being so clever using mild steel wire.
 
At 1:90 / 1:100 scale the handrail stands are very thin. They are only about 0.5 mm diameter wire. If made of copper / brass they are pretty weak and bend under any careless touch. Did anyone try to silver flux a complete steel wire stanchion so after silver soldering with a torch it is completely plated with silver and such becomes not subject to rusting?
 
Just like to make an comment. I’ve used black annealed steel wire on my models. Some of which are twenty or more years old and have shown no sign of rusting. On one of my early models (25 years old) used the original Model Shipways lead blocks. What I did is dip them in the old Floquil zinc chromate paint, then painted them brown and to this day they haven’t dissolved and are still holding the rigging in perfect tension.
 
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