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Iron Key in Muriatic Acid

teotwawki12

Elite Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2017
Messages
1,219
Location
Michigan
Last night, I decided that I'd run the rusty iron skeleton key (which I found last week) through electrolysis. But first, I thought I'd throw it in the bucket of 50/50 muriatic acid and water I have out back for soaking old bottles. Thought maybe I'd get a bit of rust off for better contact with the wires. Annnnnd I went on to doing something else, completely forgot about it, and left it there overnight.

This morning I remembered I'd left it in the acid and completely expected it to have been dissolved down to a pile of iron bits. And actually, it turned out pretty well with just the acid (don't forget the baking soda water dip...)! Before and after photos below.
 

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Your post reminded me of a piece of float copper i dug in the UP. It had silver all over it (half breed) and a guy offered me 3000 for it and asked if i could clean it up like some other pieces i had . I said sure no problem. So into the bath of acid it went . While waiting for it i started to have a few Captain and Cokes . Completely forgot about it (wonder why) and woke up next morning to find 90% of the silver eaten off the copper:no: It went for scrap. Key looks good though đź‘Ť
 
Your post reminded me of a piece of float copper i dug in the UP. It had silver all over it (half breed) and a guy offered me 3000 for it and asked if i could clean it up like some other pieces i had . I said sure no problem. So into the bath of acid it went . While waiting for it i started to have a few Captain and Cokes . Completely forgot about it (wonder why) and woke up next morning to find 90% of the silver eaten off the copper:no: It went for scrap. Key looks good though đź‘Ť

Nooooooo! Expensive bottle of rum ya had there....
 
Wow - turned out really nice! And less muss & fuss than an full blown electrolysis routine. I’ve never used muriatic acid for anything, but it sure looks like I should give it a test run on a few of my big iron pieces! Thanks for the tip!
 
That came out nice! I use muriatic for cleaning stuff all the time, they sell it in the supermarkets here, super hard water down here. It's not crazy strong though, but does the job!
 
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