How Do You Clean?

[Dazscuba]

I have a number of large artillery fragments that are coated in rust. How would I clean these and what’s the best way to do it?

Daz

[jay dubaya]

Easy to do at home with no heavy duty chemicals. White vinegar dip and elbow grease, then buff up with a wire brush. 

 

J

[Dazscuba]

Thanks 

How long do you leave it in the vinegar?

Edited 2 February , 2019 by Dazscuba

[jay dubaya]

Give it 24 hours, You may need several dips and more elbow grease in between depending how bad the piece is, you can also make a paste with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda and work it in with a wire brush. How big are the pieces?

[peregrinvs]

There are umpteen ways to remove rust. The one I generally favour is citric acid. I have also had good results with Deox-C rust remover and strong central heating system cleaner. Electrolysis is the ‘museum quality’ method and I’ve also heard good things about diluted treacle.

[ServiceRumDiluted]

A dead simple way for shell fragments is to heat them in a fire for about 20mins then quench them really quickly in cold water. The expansion-contraction shakes off the rust, but it does leave a purpleish orangeish colour that needs a lots of wire brushing to remove. 

 

 

[KONDOA]

Soak in paraffin for a few weeks then wire brush.

[Gunner Bailey]

Large brass wire brush fitted to an angle grinder, does the job in a few minutes.

[Dazscuba]

Thanks for the above 

[Interested]

Soaking in a 40:60 solution of water and treacle tends to revert the rust to steel, which might be considered better than abrading it off.

It takes about a week at room temperature and you'll end up with a black object, not dyed by the treacle, but natural iron I believe.

If you try different methods as suggested here, please let us all know how you get on, preferably with "before and after" photographs.