I was recently looking through the belongings of my recently deceased Aunt who was a hairdresser. I found lots of hi-quality, quite expensive German-made cutlery — scissors, razors, tweezers, etc. But many of the items were stained with rust and looked corroded. Is there a good rust remover I can get, or anything I can do to restore these items to their original quality? Thank you.
Dear Benefactor,
I don’t just know of A rust remover. I know of THE rust remover. Please consider their value before using this though. Changing antiques devalues them. Do an on-line search for "navel jelly" and no I am not kidding. The US govt. came up with this pink acid concocksion for the navy and they did a really good job. It will remove every bit of the rust but not the pitting caused by it. Here ya’ go. Try this site http://paint-and-supplies.hardwarestore.com/50-278-rust-removers-strippers/naval-jelly-rust-dissolver-610532.aspx
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
yes. DW-40, spray it on then get a rag and wipe the rust off
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tr soaking them in Coca Cola. the phosphoric acid in it may do the trick.
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if its high quality take it to a knife sharpener he will regrind an edge and buff away the rust
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Dear Benefactor,
I don’t just know of A rust remover. I know of THE rust remover. Please consider their value before using this though. Changing antiques devalues them. Do an on-line search for "navel jelly" and no I am not kidding. The US govt. came up with this pink acid concocksion for the navy and they did a really good job. It will remove every bit of the rust but not the pitting caused by it. Here ya’ go. Try this site http://paint-and-supplies.hardwarestore.com/50-278-rust-removers-strippers/naval-jelly-rust-dissolver-610532.aspx
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http://sites.google.com/site/premierhomeimprovementssite/
if its high quality why is there rust ?
that only Acurus when its made out of steel
are you shure its not tarnish ? [looks like rust]
try a silver cleaner first like tarnex
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maint man
have to disagree with richardm… tried the ‘jelly’ didnt work. im a welder and i use a wire brush to remove rust. a hand held one or one on a 4 1/2 inch grinder. if its ‘pitted’ it may not be worth saving
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YES! It is called CLR and it can be found in most grocery store and hardware, usually with the bathroom & Kitchen cleaning supplies, get you a scotch brite scrubber pad like you would use for pots & pans, you may have to clean them as good as you can and call it good, or if you have a buffer wheel and some compound you might bring them back to life, it depends on how much you are willing to do.
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If they’re "Hi-Quality" the shouldn’t rust.
They should be made of Stainless Steel, unfortunately there are several types of stainless. Some will rust even if they are stainless. An example is 18-8 stainless. It’s a poor quality stainless and can rust. The most affordable is 316 and it won’t rust. The best is surgical stainless but is very expensive. I think that alloy is in the 400′s
To find out the quality, Take a magnet & try to pick the stuff up. If you can move any of it (even a little) you’ve probably have 18-8 stainless.
To clean, take fine bronze wool (similar to steel wool but made of bronze), put some kind of lubricant on the scissors, razor or whatever. Somthing like WD-40, a lite oil, cooking oil, butter. Anything that is slippery and "scrub" the metal. If you have 316, than the rust is probably surface rust and will come right off. If the rust doen’t come right off, than you probably have 18-8. If so, you’ll just have to rub a little harder.
Once the rust is off, wash the piece with a mild soap & water, wipe it dry & put a lite coat of WD-40 or a oil like 3-n-1 on it. Store in a dry place to prevent it from rusting again.
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