[Douglas]

Hi Tom, Thank You for your reply, and taking the time to share your knowledge with all of us, through the forum.

I agree with everything you have said, especially the parts about stainless steel surface contamination with other metals, like steel and iron, proper weld joint design, and fabrication.

I believe that weld filler rod supply companies, like McKay (sp-?) hand out broshures containing information on use applications and guidelines about their filler rods.

I don't think these rod supply companies ever talk about or reccommend using their rods for enrichening a weld, but maybe there are some welding technical bulletins, that do discuss results using various different alloy filler rods.

You also mentioned nitric acid and other acid ss wash, to passivate contaminated ss after fabrication.

I have successfully used SS Pickling Paste to de-contaminate my standing rigging ss 1 X 19 wire .
I had re-rigged my boat using Loos ss 316 1 X 19 wire, and after 6 months, one single outside strand in the wire, went rusty. I suspected that the wire was dragged through a contaminated scrubber of some sort, then later wound or bundled into 1 X 19 .

I removed each shroud, one at a time, and painted on the pickling paste, then after 20 minutes, rinced the paste off with fresh water,,,,, result was no more rusting.

Brion Toss reccommends during his rigging talks, using a hand held 50 power microscope, to inspect SS rigging and fittings, for cracks and flaws. One day I was using my H/H 50 x scope to inspect pitting corrosion on my ss lifeline stancions. I saw iron-rust colored surface staining around each pit. I used the SS pickling paste on the pits and that removed the rust colored stains.

I think the pickling paste contains a blend of nitric, hydroflouric, and phosphoric (sp-?) acids, in a neutral thickening agent.

Have you had successful results in cleaning contaminated ss surfaces with acids or pickling paste, too ?

Douglas