Bad Experience with Evapo-Rust. How do I Fix it?

[Stew Hagerty]

I came across an opportunity to get my hands on a Stanley 4 1/2 that happened to have quite a bit of rust, and yes some pitting, for the low low price of $0.00. Well, despite the corrosion, it's hard to pass up a price like that. I have restored a few handplanes to usable condition before, and I know it can be labor intensive and this particular plane was in worse condition than any of the others. Well, I had heard about this product "Evapo-Rust", and read several rave reviews of it so I thought I'd give it a try. It was certainly easy enough to use and at first inspection, after soaking all of the parts overnight, it looked much better. However, as I was rinsing the parts off I became aware that everything looked, for lack of a better descriptive term, like aluminum. The surfaces all were this dull silvery grey color that looked nothing like cast iron. I tried scrubbing it off, then brushing it off, and even polishing it off. nothing seems to work. Worse yet, anything that the surface rubs across ends up with silvery grey streaks on it.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I do something wrong. Although I don't know how I screwed up "soak overnight then rinse". Any suggestions on how to fix it?

Here are some pictures:

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On a side note, it also seemed to accentuate the pitting. But, I knew there was some of that when I started and I can certainly live with it. The plane is unusable though, as long as it leaves streaks on everything.

[Bill White]

It is probably an aluminum plane. Will a magnet stick? Stan. did make some planes from alum.
Bill

[Scott Flamm]

I wouldn't think it's aluminum. Aluminium doesn't rust so it wouldn't need evaporust in the first place. In fact, when aluminum does oxidize it forms aluminum oxide (Al2O3) which has a mineral name of corundum (and when of gem quality is known as a saphire or ruby depending on the color). Corundum is second only to diamond in terms of hardness and therefore creates a thin protective layer on the exterior of the aluminum.

[Dale Cruea]

Post this question in the Neanderthal section. They work with this stuff all the time.

[Mike Goetzke]

Just guessing - amybe the evapo-rust was a mild acid and has etched the surface?

Mike

[Bob Wingard]

I've used Evaporust on many occasions, and have never had quite your results. The "accentuated" pits are likely visible now because they were once filled with rust, and now they are cleansed of it, leaving behind the true base metal. Evaporust will not remove any good base metal ... only the rust. My guess would be to either wire brush it or go through the same steps as you would in flattening it ... either way, it should remove any chemically converted rust that is still hanging on.

[Stew Hagerty]

I've used Evaporust on many occasions, and have never had quite your results. The "accentuated" pits are likely visible now because they were once filled with rust, and now they are cleansed of it, leaving behind the true base metal. Evaporust will not remove any good base metal ... only the rust. My guess would be to either wire brush it or go through the same steps as you would in flattening it ... either way, it should remove any chemically converted rust that is still hanging on.

You're right the pits were rusted over and didn't show as much, but I think with a "normal" patina they would not show as much as they do now. Besides, they aren't my primary concern. It just looks "weird". It doesn't look like bare iron, it doesn't look like a "patina", it looks like it has some sort of coating. And that "coating rubs off. Like I said, I've wire brushed it like crazy and it's still there.

Very strange...

[shane lyall]

Try putting it thru it again but don't leave it in as long. Have no idea if it would work as I have never used it but what would it hurt? You can't use it as is and the re treatment may soften it up enough to let you remove it. I'm just guessing mind you. YMMV.

[Greg Portland]

Have you called Evapo-Rust? They may hear about this issue on a daily basis and can give you some suggestions...

[Ryan Mooney]

Evaporust primarily converts the red rust to black rust (and does some other chemical mojo to loosen the bonds than I don't claim to understand).

If there was a LOT of rust on the plane the solution will end up looking pretty dark and you'll have residual black rust and (whatever the other stuff is in there) left on the tool. There are a couple of things you can do in those cases:

The first is to follow the evaporust instructions :p and rinse the tool under running water - a stiff scrub brush will help there. This is ideally done while the tool is still wet, once its dry a quick soak in solution will help loosen up the surface bits. A quick dip back in an evaporust solution will help prevent flash rust (but see next before you use the same cruddy pool for this tool).
What I've had success with in cases where the solution got overly dark and left a lot of residual black rust is mixing a fresh batch of evaporust and re-rinsing the tool, not for a long time, just for say 10-20m or so, and then rinse/scrub/wipe it down good. You may still have some residue but it should wipe off with sufficient persuasiveness.
It may take a couple of rinse+wipe cycles to clean up the crud (as long as the solution isn't to dark you can use it for each pass).

The gnarly batch may not be completely used up yet, if you have other heavily rusted tools you can try using it for a first soak with the understanding that it will leave some residue but it will likely still chelate off the cruddier bits (at some point the effectiveness drops and its just to slow).

If you want to use less evaporust save it for after you've wire wheeled the gross rust off first. All of the red rust will end up going into solution and is basically "wasting" the solution if you use it for the chunky bits. It also doesn't work super well through grease.