Rusty tool repair and reclamation - inquiry

[Popo425]

I am looking for some advice. I have been fortunate to have come upon an estate sale where I picked up approximately 300 or so stamps, everything from a tiny seeder stamp to a 1.5" Harley Davidson stamp. They were left in an open shop for some time where I'm guessing it was a little damp and they have all accumulated some surface rust. I have been able to remove a majority of the rust on a couple tools with a thin wire brush (the kind used for gun cleaning). It is slow going but seems to be effective. So I have 2 questions... 1- Is there a quicker or more proper way to safely (least damage to the tools as possible, not health safety) clean all these tools? And 2- Once clean, is there a way to protect and maintain your tools so this is less likely to occur again? As in, are there coatings made to protect leather stamping tools or anything you guys like to use. I realize keeping them in a dry place and using them daily would work, but this is still a hobby for me and my "shop" strangely resembles a garden shed... Thank you all in advance. 

 

 

[fredk]

1. If they are steel or iron, put them in a closed up bath of very strong lemon juice & water. Leave them for a couple of days, inspect, and renew the juice. Eventually the corrosion will be converted

2. once cleaned up you can give them a light coating of spray paint. You can get a spray-on zinc coating [at least you could]. Car restorers use it on steel/iron parts

[chuck123wapati]

vinegar is my go to for rust leave soak a bit then wire brush.

[bruce johnson]

     I clean rusty tools and stamps on a near daily basis. I would not use an acid but that's just me after having a few etch several years ago. I use EvapoRust. You can buy it at most auto parts stores (O'Reilly's is my go to), Harbor Freight carries it, and some home improvement stores. It is an oxide and rust chelator - removes rust and not good metal. It's magic sh*t. You can soak from 12 to 48 hours. Rinse and wire brush any carbon staining. To speed the process along - you can lightly warm it in a pan with the stamps. My thermometer is my finger - Cool enough I can stick a finger into the solution, too hot to leave it there. A 5-7 minute simmer and rinse then brush. You can strain the solution and reuse it until it stops working. The one caveat - it removes oxide finishes so if you have any Robert Beard stamps it will remove the black oxide finish he uses. safe for hands, wood, rubber, etc. WD-40 makes a similar product and Metal Rescue is another. 

     Once clean, you can apply a finish to prevent rust - wax, light oil, WD-40, Boeschield, there's a bunch. 

[chuck123wapati]

8 hours ago, bruce johnson said:

     I clean rusty tools and stamps on a near daily basis. I would not use an acid but that's just me after having a few etch several years ago. I use EvapoRust. You can buy it at most auto parts stores (O'Reilly's is my go to), Harbor Freight carries it, and some home improvement stores. It is an oxide and rust chelator - removes rust and not good metal. It's magic sh*t. You can soak from 12 to 48 hours. Rinse and wire brush any carbon staining. To speed the process along - you can lightly warm it in a pan with the stamps. My thermometer is my finger - Cool enough I can stick a finger into the solution, too hot to leave it there. A 5-7 minute simmer and rinse then brush. You can strain the solution and reuse it until it stops working. The one caveat - it removes oxide finishes so if you have any Robert Beard stamps it will remove the black oxide finish he uses. safe for hands, wood, rubber, etc. WD-40 makes a similar product and Metal Rescue is another. 

     Once clean, you can apply a finish to prevent rust - wax, light oil, WD-40, Boeschield, there's a bunch. 

never heard of evaporust i will have to try that out. Yup acids have to be watched closely to avoid them eating the metal itself

 

[tsunkasapa]

Evaporust is good stuff. And it can be reused several times.

[ljk]

My go to for small parts and tools is "THE WORKS" a common and in-expensive bathroom cleaner.  It's disposable obviously. For larger projects and perhaps more gentle is electrolysis, many post on this on YouTube and other places. Probably very friendly environmentally as the water and the other chemicals are simple like salts or Borax.

[rleather]

The works cleaners have a lot of acids in them , may not be the best solution , I personally would not use it as a rust remover. You also have to be careful of skin and eye contact, and it does have fumes. I am glad for this thread my tools are way over due for a rust cleaning. Living in the Florida humidity really is hard on steel. I think I will try Evaporust. Thanks for the post.

[fredk]

My use of lemon juice was taught to me by a top museum conservator at the RAF Cosford Museum. They use it on all the metals used in an aeroplane. Strength of solution dilution dependants on metal and amount of corrosion

[chuck123wapati]

On 6/19/2022 at 4:22 AM, fredk said:

My use of lemon juice was taught to me by a top museum conservator at the RAF Cosford Museum. They use it on all the metals used in an aeroplane. Strength of solution dilution dependants on metal and amount of corrosion

Mine was taught to me by my dad who grew up in the 30s depression and didn't have a thousand products to choose from lol. . Both lemon juice and vinegar are completely safe, for people and the environment as well, cheap and easy to come by.

i used vinegar on all the switches on my 75 mgb to remove the oxides so they would work again. It was much easier than trying to take them apart and to dry them out afterwards without leaving any residues. Just threw em in a bucket and kept my eye on them then blew them out with some air.

Edited June 20, 2022 by chuck123wapati

[chuck123wapati]

so me being my always questioning self looked at the msds for evapo rust. it uses a chelating ingredient but doesn't say exactly what. so i looked up the definition of chelating. Guess what both vinegar and lemon juice are chelators lol. 

Reminds of the time i was trying to make my IT tech realize his five dollar an ounce cd cleaner was nothing but isopropyl alcohol. yea i prolly wont waste the money now that i think about it.

[MarshalWill]

I realize this is a necro post but I felt there was something I could add, should anyone cruise through old threads and read through them looking for information. There are a lot of good tips already for removing the rust so I won't get into that.

After I remove rust from tools and stamps however, I use Birchwood-Casey Super Blue or Birchwood-Casey Perma Blue to seal the metal. It's touch-up bluing and turns bare metal dark blue or black but does keep it from corroding right away, provided you take care of your tools and don't leave them out in a damp environment to rust up again. You can get it from ebay, Amazon or any number of gun smithing suppliers.