Review of Evaporust for rust removal

[Daswulf]

Not sure where to put this.

Someone mentioned this before on the site and I forgot about until another artist mentioned it and got good results. He mentioned that it was available at HF here in our area of the USA so obviously I Had to go get some and try it. 

Reading the bottle it said its safe on skin and eyes, non-toxic and biodigradable. I like that. ( but then electrolysis is pretty safe as well.)

Some items I soaked for around 24hrs. Were some knives and tools with varying degrees of rust. The file was in my scrap pile to be forged. Also the wire cutters were in my scrap pile. 

It said on the container that some higher carbon steel will turn more black in the process. It did. Also that it shouldnt hurt painted surfaces, plastic or rubber. So far so good. 

Unfortunately I neglected to get before photos. 

The square was the lightest colored piece out of the mix. It almost has a finely sandblasted look and feel.

The file looked like the one beside it and after the soak and a quick touch with a card file its cutting well. 

The poor neglected BoyScout pocket knife i found at the fleamarket is freed up and after a quicky with some double0 steel wool lookes ok with no harm I can tell to the scales. 

The beside knife was bad but i can now read the name and it didnt hurt the plated or painted parts of the tin handle. 

I'll experiment more but this was the first trial run. Seems it likes about a 24hr. Run. I'll try some overnight runs and Extremely rusty stuff. 

The other side of the coin is it Is almost $30.us a gallon.

I'll be trying wire wheel on the tools to see how that goes as well on the blackish finish. I'll also get before pictures as well. 

[Glenn]

You converted tools from junk to usable using this stuff, so what is the value of the tools? If it exceeds the value of the derusting solution, then it was worth the investment.

[Daswulf]

Sure, that is a good way to look at it. And its reusable so if you clean a pile of files it's worth it. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Use it all the time. Dosen't do anything about pitting but rust is gone. I have rescued several old muzzleloading rifles without damage to the metal parts. I like it.

[Frosty]

Do the moving parts move freely? Some rust conversion chemicals tend to weld connected parts together.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

The pocket knife I did was really stiff to open the blades before. After it was opening easily like the one I carry daily. The cutters acted the same as when I put them in. One was really tight and the other was loose. I gave them a squirt of wd40 after and worked them and some rust was working out from the tight joint. I would have to say I don't believe it would seize joints.

[Frosty]

Cool. Products like Ospho, Naval Jelly, etc. all contain phosphoric acid and tend to convert rust in joints into one piece of steel. I've wondered on occasion if a person could weld chemically. Rust up the joint faces, clamp them together and soak them in a phosphoric acid recipe. Yeah, I know but I can't help myself, I think of these things all the time. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[bnewberry]

I use Evaporust all the time on older steel bicycles and it works great! One issue I have had is that when reusing Evaporust is that it can turn carbon steel quite dark. 

[JHCC]

Considering how cheap rusty files go for at the flea market, this could be a particularly useful way to convert junk into usable tools. 

How tough is that black finish? Might this be something that we end up using to finish our complete work (knife blades and such)?

[Daswulf]

Its almost like a parkerized finish. It would take some testing to see how it holds up. 

And yes, it's worth saving the rusty files. Before they would end up in my scrap but now they will get a chance in this first. 

[Frosty]

Parkerized is phosphoric(?) phosphate(?) oxide . . . whatever the correct term is, I need a chemist to speak up please! Anyway, if you don't neutralize and rinse a phosphoric acid product, Ospho, Naval Jelly, etc. it turns the surface black when it dries and forms a preservative coating. (Patina?)

These rust reversing products turn any steel black if allowed to dry and it weakens as it's reused till it's dead. 

I just looked at the MSDS for Evaporust: PH 6.1, non toxic, not a skin irritant, not an occular irritant, ("use eye protection with any cleaning product" as from the MSDS) spill cleanup, absorbents and wash with water. IF swallowed, 2 glasses of water, induce vomiting and seek med attention. No enviro danger  under normal conditions, not flammable, explosive or . . . well, almost anything. According to the quick scans of a couple MSDS sheets it's less dangerous than Dawn dish soap.

Phosphoric acid isn't listed anywhere. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

Frosty, the higher carbon metals turn darker In the solution, not when dried. 

After some more testing I think this is great for small or "some" more delicate stuff, but for the heavily rusted stuff I'll stick with electrolysis since it really "degrades" the life of the Evaporust and is less expensive. 

 

[JHCC]

From my reading of the material on the website of Parker Rust-Proof of Cleveland (which I won't link to here, because it's a commercial site), Parkerizing is basically a three-stage process: cleaning, immersion in phosphoric acid (which deposits a layer of iron and manganese phosphates on the surface), and a sealing treatment with wax or oil (to seal the porous phosphate layer).

The correct term is "phosphoric acid", the common name of trihydrogen phosphate (H₃PO₄).

[Frosty]

Two entirely different products then. I just got PMed with the correct name of the black patina, "Iron Phosphate" and evidently there's manganese phosphate in the brew too. 

Thanks, good info for all. Evaporust is now on my list of shop juices.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Parkerizing is what the military used for decades to finish their weapons. Everything from 03 Springfields to M2HBs and beyond.

[stevomiller]

Good results. 

Whats its effect on brass?

Lots of pocket knives have brass liners and bolsters.

Curious If this will damage them, or pollute your solution so it doesn’t work?

Sorry I haven’t looked the product up online.

I use CLR and Lime Away to remove rust and make a rustpreventing grey finish, they both have phosphoric acid in them.

I will add Evaporust to chemicals to keep around, thanks for the review.

[Daswulf]

If I remember right from the lable it doesn't affect anything non-ferrous.

[Viceplaint]

What a good result you have! Thanks for the tutorial and helpful advice, for a long time I could not remove the rust from my tools. Special thanks for the review with the before and after photos. The result is very clearly visible on them.