Wiper blade tension wrench issue/help

[OrMeanGene]

Hello everyone. Ive recently begun collecting wiper blades and harvesting some materials. Gonna take a shot at making my own wrenches and picks. Im having an issue that i dont see addressed anywhere and im wondering if im doing this wrong. Most of my blade inserts have a black film or coating that's incredibly difficult to remove/peel. Do you guys toss these and go purely for plain clean metal, or is there a step im missing to clean them up before crafting?
Thanks
Mean Gene

[Squelchtone]

photos would help so we can see what youre experiencing. Every wiper blade I find in the trash outside Auto Zone gets the rubber easily peeled off and inside is shiny stainless metal with no paint or residue on it. Where are you getting wipers?

[Robotnik]

If I recall correctly, I've pulled some wider, thinner-gauge, black-colored metal inserts out of some beam type wipe blades. Personally I didn't find these to be particularly useful for tool making. Much prefer the type Squelchtone is talking about.

[OrMeanGene]

Ill snap pics tomorrow. I had my local mechanic save up a box for me. I just grabbed maybe a dozen so far. Only 2 actually had the really nice shiney stainless look, rest all are blacked out. When bending on a couple(testing), i noticed a film peeling off (stainless underneath)

[OrMeanGene]

photos would help so we can see what youre experiencing. Every wiper blade I find in the trash outside Auto Zone gets the rubber easily peeled off and inside is shiny stainless metal with no paint or residue on it. Where are you getting wipers?

Here's a side by side of good and film one



And this shows more. 1st pic upload, hope works

[Squelchtone]

Very curious. I have never encountered such inserts.

[OrMeanGene]

Very curious. I have never encountered such inserts.

Guess i was lucky on this batch lol..

[Silverado]

One of my buddies works at a dealership and I had tasked him with finding me inserts. He said he couldn't find any, and that all the ones he had pulled were newer wipers and they had "nylon inserts"...he told me that the "older style" wipers are the only ones that had steel in them.
Maybe this is what he was seeing, not realizing they were actually metal underneath?

[OrMeanGene]

One of my buddies works at a dealership and I had tasked him with finding me inserts. He said he couldn't find any, and that all the ones he had pulled were newer wipers and they had "nylon inserts"...he told me that the "older style" wipers are the only ones that had steel in them.
Maybe this is what he was seeing, not realizing they were actually metal underneath?

Someone else mentioned new ones sometimes use different materials as well. Im gonna try and find a solution to soak them. See if it removes, make sure its good metal(some prlly isnt spring steel). Otherwise im starting to think im gonna have to trash most of these and keep the good ones. Sucks because after stripping a small box i got maybe 6 pieces of good steel. Better then none i guess.

[dontlook]

I have some of that, don't use it for much. They are huge and they outer film/coating is a PITA.

[kwoswalt99-]

I used to pick up street sweeper bristles in parking lots by the handful.

[OrMeanGene]

I used to pick up street sweeper bristles in parking lots by the handful.

Ya but im in portland, the tweakers got all those picked up

[OrMeanGene]

I have some of that, don't use it for much. They are huge and they outer film/coating is a PITA.

Ya it sure does take work. Little bitty pieces of film come off. I was thinking of trying a chemical, similar to removing knife blade coatings. Id hate to lose so much material when just starting to collect.

[Jacob Morgan]

Have you tried chucking up a wire brush on a power drill? If you have a bench grinder you should be able to get a wire brush for it. Or try putting a sanding drum on a drill motor and give each piece of metal a few swipes?

There are some very effective paint removers out there (e.g., anything with methylene chloride in it), but the fumes tend to be carcinogenic. If you go that route you would need to use it outside, upwind, wear gloves, etc.

[djhobbes]

I have not come across wide inserts like the ones you showed us but I can certainly see the value in them. It would be nice if the inserts were a tad wider to facilitate a wider range of fabrication.

If the inserts are in fact metal and the coating does chip off then you absolutely want to get that coating off before using the inserts for something. If it were to come off, even in small amounts, inside a lock that could cause some headaches. Wire brush as others have suggested would be one approach. Personally, I would try using 400 grit wet/dry paper. Place the inserts on a piece of scrap wood such as a 1x2, tape to the scrap at one end and carefully sand away from the tape. This method would give you a little bit more control over the coating removal vs a wire brush.