Rust Removal with Tomato Paste

A. G. Maisey · 18th April 2008, 05:00 AM

Heat doesn't hurt a heat treated blade as long as you keep it within the range the blade was drawn to originally. Bearing in mind these low tech blades were probably made from something like spring steel and drawn to a blue, as long as you're within that heat range, you're not doing any harm. There's another thing too:- a lot of these sort of blades were not hardened and drawn all the way up to the tang. If you etch the blade you can see where the hardening has occurred, and more often than not its along the edge, and tapers off completely before it gets up to what would be the ricasso area. In practical use terms, this makes a lot of sense.

An easy stand for an upright soaking container is a box of sand---cardboard box, put some sand into it, or even earth if you don't have sand, and sit the pipe upright in the sand.

Dmitry · 9th July 2009, 05:14 PM

Does the pineapple juice etch the blades, being acidic in its composition?

kahnjar1 · 10th July 2009, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmitry

Does the pineapple juice etch the blades, being acidic in its composition?

VERY slightly but is easily polished off.
Regards Stuart

M ELEY · 11th July 2009, 02:39 AM

I recently cleaned an old Queen Ann cannon barrel flintlock with the ol' pineapple juice and it worked very well, getting rid of the dull luster without completely removing the old patina. I've used pineapple juice likewise on keris, but because the gun had its grip and I didn't remove the keris hilt, I used tissue paper soaked in the juice to act as a kind of acid paper machet' (spelling!). This is a little messy, but if applied right, works the positive effects of acid etching while allowing cleaning in specific areas. I even wrapped the soaked tissue around the trigger guard without having to involve the trigger itself (which was of another metal and didn't need it). Anyway, my two cents...

18th April 2008, 05:00 AM	#1
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,047	Heat doesn't hurt a heat treated blade as long as you keep it within the range the blade was drawn to originally. Bearing in mind these low tech blades were probably made from something like spring steel and drawn to a blue, as long as you're within that heat range, you're not doing any harm. There's another thing too:- a lot of these sort of blades were not hardened and drawn all the way up to the tang. If you etch the blade you can see where the hardening has occurred, and more often than not its along the edge, and tapers off completely before it gets up to what would be the ricasso area. In practical use terms, this makes a lot of sense. An easy stand for an upright soaking container is a box of sand---cardboard box, put some sand into it, or even earth if you don't have sand, and sit the pipe upright in the sand.

9th July 2009, 05:14 PM	#2
Dmitry Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 607	Does the pineapple juice etch the blades, being acidic in its composition?

11th July 2009, 02:39 AM	#4
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,184	I recently cleaned an old Queen Ann cannon barrel flintlock with the ol' pineapple juice and it worked very well, getting rid of the dull luster without completely removing the old patina. I've used pineapple juice likewise on keris, but because the gun had its grip and I didn't remove the keris hilt, I used tissue paper soaked in the juice to act as a kind of acid paper machet' (spelling!). This is a little messy, but if applied right, works the positive effects of acid etching while allowing cleaning in specific areas. I even wrapped the soaked tissue around the trigger guard without having to involve the trigger itself (which was of another metal and didn't need it). Anyway, my two cents...