Any tips for cleaning this iron key-shaped item?

marcus118 said:

Dug this iron object near an old cellar hole last weekend and would really love to clean it up. I'm assuming it's a key but I think it's made of iron since it's magnetic. Tried about 20 minutes of electrolysis and didnt really seem to help much. Any help with cleaning tips would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Marc

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IF there's even still bare metal underneath - then you need to file down to it if you want to do electrolysis. 20 minutes isn't going to touch that thing. Of course, it depends on volts / amps being used. Even with a car charger, that thing's going to take at least 4 hours.

After that, hit it with a hammer and the rust will break off like a shell and you can do another round of electrolysis.

Hit it with a wire brush after that, and do one last bath in the electrolysis before brushing and oil it up with gun oil. Otherwise it will rust up again very quickly (days).

If you're going to use wall adapters for the electrolysis, I suggest alternating between 2 of them and also changing wall outlets so nothing overheats - and it won't if you do that. If you have a car battery charger, they're designed to trip, so you can just leave it without worrying.

Good luck!

Thanks Rob! Yea I've been trying to file it down with my swiss army but not much is coming off. Also since I'm not sure exactly what this is, I dont know if i'm filing down on the metal or the corrosion

Thanks again!
Marc

marcus118 said:

Thanks Rob! Yea I've been trying to file it down with my swiss army but not much is coming off. Also since I'm not sure exactly what this is, I dont know if i'm filing down on the metal or the corrosion

Thanks again!
Marc

Click to expand...

I've had that problem... you just have to keep going and be careful not to hurt what may be underneath. (don't drill into it lol) If you're still filing down and you don't see shiny metal, then you're still taking off the corrosion (on a piece like that, probably over 1/4 inch). You'll know when you see the metal. Just be careful you aren't going beyond that.

If you have a voltage meter, file down both ends and connect your leeds outside of the bath. Then plug it in. Touch the positive end of your meter to the positive of the adapter, and the negative to the OTHER side of the object.

If the meter spikes when the negative makes contact with the other side, then you know you're running current through the object in question.

Even if it doesn't start to bubble, you're still causing the rust to separate from the metal so it will fracture away when you tap it repeatedly with the hammer.

Items that rusted won't bubble at first even if you've got a good connection. After a few hours it's probably going to look the same, but you'll notice that some of the rust is able to be knocked off, whereas it would have been impossible prior to the bath. The rust becomes brittle.

Once that comes off, put it back in and you'll see the whole thing bubble.

wow thanks for all the advice - i'll give it a go!