Storing rusty saws

[Moses Yoder]

I have a box of rusty saws, some very nice ones, that I would prefer not to rust any further. I won't go into the details but there is no way I can get to them before winter, and I don't work in the shop during winter due to the cost of energy. I don't want the saws to rust further; I want to retard the rust until next summer. What should I do to them?

[Shannon Brantley]

Stuff will rust down here in the time it takes to eat lunch. I've had good luck with camellia oil.

[Joe Bailey]

bring them indoors

[Greg Portland]

I have a box of rusty saws, some very nice ones, that I would prefer not to rust any further. I won't go into the details but there is no way I can get to them before winter, and I don't work in the shop during winter due to the cost of energy. I don't want the saws to rust further; I want to retard the rust until next summer. What should I do to them?

I've used Jasco prep & primer to remove the rust and stop further rust from forming. It converts the rust into iron phosphate and prevents further rust from forming. I spray it on and let it work overnight (hang the parts so it can breathe). This is for saws and planes destined to be "users".

[Moses Yoder]

I've used Jasco prep & primer to remove the rust and stop further rust from forming. It converts the rust into iron phosphate and prevents further rust from forming. I spray it on and let it work overnight (hang the parts so it can breathe). This is for saws and planes destined to be "users".

Do you put this in a spray bottle? I am looking at a quart at Lowes, can I just put it in a mist sprayer and spray it on? This looks like a good solution to me.

[David Weaver]

Just oil them for now. If you want phosphoric acid, the concrete etch at the borgs also works well, just be prepared for your shop to smell like a rotten egg.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on machine oil, and a couple garbage bags.

[Don Kingston]

Eastwood.com a car restoration store named Eastwood has several different products to stop, remove, or encase and neutralize rust. You may find something you like on their website.

[Bill Sutherland]

There's a old video on Shopsmith Sawdust Sessions on using potatoes to clean the rust.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Moses,

One thing not looked at always, is how rusty the saws are. If the saws have only a very light and thin surface rust, then most good rest preventers will work. If, however, the rust is heavier than that, the preventative may have a hard time penetrating to get below the worst spots/pits of rust, if you are just using a fairly viscose oil. This is because some of the preventers such as motor oil, or other viscous oils are thick enough that they don't penetrate easily. If the preventer does not thoroughly penetrate the rust, the material will continue to rust underneath the existing heavy rust spots.

This is why you see saws with areas of little to no rust, and yet with significant spots of corrosion mixed in the corrosion free areas. The corrosion starts as a tiny spot, and then spreads. The corrosion spot itself helping promote further corrosion below and adjacent to itself. The result is a growing spot of corrosion that over a period of time becomes significant and ugly.


For this reason something like Leach or some other penetrating oil might be better for use over the winter. Such oils are designed to penetrate. They are a mixture of different oils, some of which are relatively low boiling, and also fairly low viscosity. These oils, which we in the industry call "lights" thin the oil, giving it a much lower viscosity, so that it will be able to thoroughly penetrate into and below the rust. The other higher boiling oils, which we call "heavies" have the ability to stay put once in place, and prevent rust. The light oils slowly evaporate away over time, but the higher boiling "heavy" oils do not evaporate at any appreciable rate, and thus are in it for the long haul.

Another option is to use a lot of a pretty heavy oil, like motor oil, and just slather on a coat that is heavy enough to thoroughly coat the steel. This is pretty messy, but is effective, because it prevents oxygen from the air from penetrating through the coating, and thus protecting the steel.

I am leery of the materials that convert the rust to iron phosphate. I have used such, but have doubts how effective such are for long term storage, even though fine to excellent for the short run use.

For what it's worth, you can make your own inexpensive rust preventing oil by mixing a little motor oil with paint thinner. I would use about 2/3rds paint thinner and 1/3rd motor oil. This should be thin enough to penetrate, but you can experiment to see what the viscosity you need is.

Regards,

Stew

[Greg Portland]

Do you put this in a spray bottle? I am looking at a quart at Lowes, can I just put it in a mist sprayer and spray it on? This looks like a good solution to me.

Yes, I use a spray bottle. I use the same bottle from Lowes...

[Rob Luter]

I've had the best luck scraping surface rust off with a utility knife blade then hitting it with penetrating oil to stop the oxidation process. By the time I'm ready to start the restoration anything that remains is nice and loose