Use oxalic acid. It'll remove the rust spots with minimal disturbance to
the surface.

Paul K. Dickman
"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I took note of the recent discussion concerning stainless steel and
removing rust. Kept several good posts (thank you Ed, Carl...) for
future reference.

A friend of mine kind of neglected his stainless revolver a bit too
long and it has developed little rust spots here and there. Here are a
few links to images that illustrate the problem:

http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_overall-1.jpeg
http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_detail-0.jpeg
http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_detail-1.jpeg
http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_detail-2.jpeg
http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_detail-3.jpeg
http://www.iserv.net/~lfisk/rust_detail-4.jpeg

A gunsmith friend thought bead-blasting it would be the best cure but
the citric acid treatment sounded interesting to me. Neither of us
care to try messing around with nitric acid. Mechanical means, buffing
and such would probably be quite noticeable I think compared to the rest
of the finish.

Any suggestions? Or would the best course be to just leave it alone,
chalk it up as a lesson that stainless steel isn't necessarily
carefree

I also wondered it electrolytic derusting works on stainless too. I
remember people discussing the use of stainless for an electrode and
toxic gas it would generate but not trying to derust the stainless
piece itself. And how would that affect what was passivized? I've used
electrolytic before on a few items with impressive results but
nothing stainless. Messy as heck but it doesn't really generate any
dangerous byproducts to dispose of.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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