Hello Everyone,

I have recently been searching ways to clean rust off of tools and I came upon a method of cleaning metal using Distilled White Vinegar. Using this method I was wondering if anyone has tried this on their anvil. I have the intention of taking my anvil and placing it in a tote bucket and filling it up with the Vinegar solution and letting it sit for a while to attempt to clean up the anvil without any abrasive materials. Can anyone validate this method or give some insight as to how it would affect an anvil? Thank you. Once I try this on some of my old tools first I will post some pictures of the results so all can see how it goes. I will then try it with the anvil.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Vinegar will derust by dissolving the rust, the method has been around probably since vinegar and iron, Rome anyway, probably lots longer. I wouldn't advise using straight vinegar though unless you're going to stay on hand to watch the reaction, it's pretty aggressive. Muriatic acid is a LOT more aggressive and can do the job in minutes compared to a couple hours.

I've had good luck with dilute Naval Jelly or phosphoric acid, this comes close to the same effect as electrolysis. Electrolysis is probably the safest derusting method, Both personal safety and potential damage to tools concerns. The strongest chemical involved is a little laundry soda, baking soda, salt, vinegar, etc. in a very dilute solution, just enough to make water electrically conductive. Then you need a 12v battery charger of the manual type, the new automatics just shut themselves off.

There are plenty of details available for a site search.

Frosty The Lucky.

Citric acid works just as well and is generally cheaper.

On 29/09/2016 at 10:20 AM, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Vinegar will derust by dissolving the rust, the method has been around probably since vinegar and iron, Rome anyway, probably lots longer. I wouldn't advise using straight vinegar though unless you're going to stay on hand to watch the reaction, it's pretty aggressive. Muriatic acid is a LOT more aggressive and can do the job in minutes compared to a couple hours.

I've had good luck with dilute Naval Jelly or phosphoric acid, this comes close to the same effect as electrolysis. Electrolysis is probably the safest derusting method, Both personal safety and potential damage to tools concerns. The strongest chemical involved is a little laundry soda, baking soda, salt, vinegar, etc. in a very dilute solution, just enough to make water electrically conductive. Then you need a 12v battery charger of the manual type, the new automatics just shut themselves off.

There are plenty of details available for a site search.

Frosty The Lucky.

Besides muriatic acid being aggressive is there any problems if I use it to clean a anvil, need to strip some gal off the fittings for the burners.

Just use plain old vinegar...cheap, safe, effective.