Called BS on vinegar for descaling tools... then my neighbor proved me wrong in 20 minutes

Been forging and doing general metal work for maybe 12 years now. Used to swear by those fancy chemical descalers, spending like $30 a bottle. My neighbor is this old timer who restores vintage farm equipment. He saw me scrubbing a rusty anvil face with a wire brush and just laughed. He grabbed a spray bottle of white vinegar, soaked a rag, left it on for 20 minutes, and the scale came off like butter. I thought it was some internet myth. Tried it on a set of old tongs I picked up at a salvage yard near Akron last month and it worked even better. Anyone else have a cheap home remedy that actually beat the expensive stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_murphy8529d agoMost Upvoted

Bet the acidity reacts different on scale vs rust, wonder if that matters.

joel60329d ago

Oh totally, it's like how vinegar cleans some stuff but eats through others (my grandma used it on her coffee pot, ruined the seal). Always feels like that's the hidden variable nobody talks about with these cleaning hacks.