Re Vinegar for rust removal:

Regular vinegar is ~ 5% acetic acid.  In the cleaning supply area of Home
Hardware (in Canada) you can often find "cleaning vinegar" which is ~10%
acetic acid (other suppliers may have 8%-check the label).
 It's usually about the same price as the regular food grade stuff from the
grocery store.  I find the higher concentration convenient because it just
works faster (plus it works great for windows and general cleaning of scale
from hard water etc),  Soaking a couple of hours or so will clean most of
the moderate rust, and maybe overnight for the more severely rusted stuff.
Don't forget your stuff in there for weeks though (it will eventually
'dissolve').

  I also use this soaking technique for quick rehab of bargain priced used
flea market files and rasps.  The files come out of the solution with thick
black crud that comes off pretty easily with a brass wire brush (even the
crud at the deepest parts of double cut files comes out).   I find that
this will clean out the grooves and chemically "sharpen" the teeth giving
me very inexpensive, reasonably sharp files (sometimes 'as new').
  I use files for wood as well as shaping metal, and I find it convenient
to have many shapes and styles to hand for all sorts of odd jobs.  Usually
no one wants used files so you can usually get them at a very good price,
 It often works out in my favor to buy a handful of these and drop them in
vinegar overnight to see what I've got.  Give it a try- you will be
surprised by how well this usually works.  Sure you will get a few duds,
but often the files are just really dirty and have plenty of life left in
them.
  I'm not sure if it weakens the edges or not (ie reduces the life of the
file), but for the money, it usually works out favorably. (Maybe someone
who knows metal can comment on this?)  Besides, there are so many uses for
the high carbon steel, its worth picking some up just to experiment with-
(for example, you can put a couple into the hot coals after your next BBQ
and then leave them to cool slowly in the ashes to anneal the steel to
rework it giving it a new purpose rather than landfill...
  Does anyone know if the edges of steel files are permanently damaged (or
weakened) by soaking in acid?

Cheers,
Claudio in Waterloo, ON




> of Naval Jelly and found vinegar was not only cheaper, but
> easier to use.  The grey surface?  0000 steel wool cures that.
>
> Mike in Sacto
>
>