How to Remove Rust from Antiques for Restoration

Are you into old items such as hunting traps, cast iron pans, old car parts, or any type of rusty junk? If so, you know how tough removing rust from antiques can be. It is a nightmare! Break out the scouring pads, wire brushes and elbow grease because you will be scrubbing for what seems to be eternity.

Up until recently, this is how we cleaned our corrosion coated gems. 

On one of our last farm picks, we purchased roughly 300 corrosion pasted hunting traps. We started cleaning them by hand with a wire brush, then a wire wheel. This was not ideal, but we managed to clean 50 traps. Each trap took about 10-15 minutes. You do the math.

Upon some light research, we found vinegar is the wonder acid for removing rust. All you do is submerge your rusted pieces of metal in vinegar for a few days (we soaked our traps for 3 days). Once soaked, simply pull out the piece and lightly wipe the rust off with a towel. Its that easy. What took 10-15 minutes per trap now takes 2-3 minutes.

Check out this demo video: