Fence post bangle

The rust was a bit of a worry as I kept on knocking out large chunks with an old screwdriver but the steel ended up looking structurally sound enough for the project and both the internal and external corrosion added a lot of character (the internal corrosion was still evident at each end when looking end-on). Once I could no longer knock any more rust out, I treated the inside and moved on.

I wanted the pig's body to have a similar provenance so chose a piece of fairly rotten fencing rail, about 25mm thick,  that I had rescued from a pile due to be burned. This was from a little further along the Thames at the edge of two fields. Here is the piece after being trimmed.

The Bangle

When I cut the pig's armour, I wanted a longer body than that of  Mildred, made an astonishing 11 years ago, but I over-did it a bit and eventually decided to saw a 12-mm thick piece off the end. It looked like it might just have some potential as a bangle.

My first task was to remove as much of the rust as possible using a stiff brass brush and lengthy soakings in a 1:10 solution (by weight) of citric acid crystals in warm water. Some of the most obstinate areas were at the bottom of pits and gullies but after many cycles of soak-and-brush, the steel was clean but obviously still pitted though this gave the surface an interesting texture. The inside of the band was similarly treated but I used sandpaper to add some smoothness to  the pitted finish.

The edges have been smoothed and polished and a 45-degree bevel added which can be clearly seen in the first of the following two pictures. The shiny bevel really sets off the pitted textures. The second photo shows the inside of the band after smoothing.

The textures look really beautiful and I now have to turn it into a usable bangle for someone with a slim wrist by slightly flattening the circle to an oval then cutting through the band along one of the long sides and tidying up the ends. I have mocked this up using a piece of flattened 15 mm copper pipe having the same length as the circumference of the band and it seems to be a suitable size.

My biggest problem is the large gully that runs from top to bottom and left to right in the first of the above photos. My concern is that there will be a structural weakness here that may cause a problem when I gently flatten the band to an oval and particularly when I, again very gently, open the band out by a couple of centimetres after cutting. I am going to try and simulate that using another 12 mm off-cut and filing a similar gully. I may be able to mitigate the problem by ensuring that the weak area lies a couple of centimeters in from one of the ends at a place of minimal stress. I am way outside my comfort zone here.