Clean up rust with vinegar


Hidden underneath all this nasty red metallic bullshit, you’re going to find something beautiful.
High carbon steel.
As wonderful a material it is, holding a better edge over the inoxydable stainless steel, it does react with oxygen if exposed to humidity. Basically unless you oil your tools they’ll eventually go to shit. But not to worry! With just a quick look in the kitchen you’ll be able to find everything you need to bring back some life into those rusty pieces of steel.
before we continue let me get this out of the way, would it be better/easier/faster to use electrolysis/sanding/grinding/sandblasting? probably, but until I have the equipment to do that, this is the best way to go about rust cleaning with what most people have to hand. So! up above we have a good example of a before during and after
So what do we need? Well for a basic solution, you just need some white vinegar and salt. Ingredients? About a cup of salt per gallon of vinegar or just pour it in until it stops dissolving.
For this demonstration I have a pair of old old axe heads that my father in law had lying around in the barn. These axes came from a elderly gentleman who picked them up from his wife’s grandfather’s farm, so there’s a good chance they’re at least 50 years old. Lots of rust develops in half a century, but nothing that we can’t get off with a bit of chemical assistance.
Rust is essentially the reaction of the element iron and oxygen in the presence of water or humid air. You leave those shiny tools around with no oily protection and eventually the whole thing will rust to nothing. Soak the rusting object in vinegar and the acid will begin to work on the rust reacting with it and creating bubbles of hydrogen, the rust will dissolve and  weaken allowing us to scrub it off with much less effort. You can see above the pattern of hydrogen bubbles on the surface after a night’s bath.
So after it’s had a day or two take it out and give it a scrub in fresh water, use a scouring ball, scotch pad, just something abrasive to take off the rust flakes. You can see after a day this axe’s rust just isn’t coming off, so it’s back into the vinegar
1915, WW1 made for some very solid rust it seams. You might be thinking that this is way too long of a process, that it could be done with an angle grinder and a flap wheel or just sandpaper. Yes. absolutely it can and would be faster, but you’re going to potentially lose those maker's marks and stamps and besides most of the time spent on this is just waiting in the background.
This is now the 3rd day in, I threw in a pair of metal wedges I pulled out of some old handles, one of these I ended up putting into my hatchet.
On the 4th day I was able to get off the most stubborn of the rust. There’s still a few stops here and there and seeing as I was in no rush it goes back in for another day
Here we are after the fifth day of vinegar, nice and clean. Now this axe was a little more difficult to clean that all of the others, most of the time 2 days is plenty to loosen everything. I’m impatient but the longer you wait the easier it’ll be.
If like me your lady friend is good and sick of you spilling rust water everywhere and staining furniture an earthy red, then you’ll be banned from the kitchen sick and relegated to to garden bench for the remainder of the work. Here you can see the second axe ready for a scrub after 2 nights in vinegar.
With all the rust gone you’ll be left with a clean surface but if left to dry you’ll find that the surface instantly develops a coating of rust.
This is can be prevented with either a bath in water and baking soda to nuetralise the surface of the iron or to displace the water with oil to protect it from oxygen.
I don’t have any baking soda, but I have a lot of GT85 rolling around in the back of my car (basically WD40 with a hint of teflon).
Once the part is out, wipe off the water with a paper towel then give it a good spray with the oil, scrub with a new paper towel to work it into the grooves and you’re done.
A nicely restored axe, ready for a sharpening and a new handle.

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