rust on one wire

[rcntryhm]

I have rust on one wire on the mizzen lowers. What does it mean and what are the consequences. I cannot see any breaks.

Thanks for any assistance.

[Brian Duff]

what do you mean by 'rust'

a brownish coloration ... or dark brown flaking rust ?

[rcntryhm]

dark brown and some flaking

[Brian Duff]

Do you mean one strand of a wire or one whole cable ?

If you have flaking rust(or grainy textured surface to dark brown rust area) on stainless steel it is cracked, crevice corroding and otherwise failing.

Perhaps a rigger may find on actual inspection that this is not the case, but based on your brief description this is my opinion -if it has flaking rust its gotta go, its failing-

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
Usually what you are describing is an artifact of the extrusion process, wherein one yarn was inadequately cleaned as it exited the extrusion die. The resulting corrosion is from particles of metal from the die. But I once saw a piece of 1x19 wire with one mild steel yarn, and 18 stainless ones. Oops. If you have actual, deep corrosion going on, it might be that the affected yarn is not good steel, and, as Brian says, the whole thing's gotta go.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Alison Mazon]

I periodically see 1X19 ss shrouds with a candy cane stripe of light surface corrosion. It typically affects about 3 yarns adjacent each other. I have never seen flaking. Other than that, all appears normal. Is there any reason to condemn the wire?

Thanks, Alison