Rusty Pliers Fix

[mytmouse]

Like the title says I have an old pair of pliers that I "borrowed" from my Pops' tool box a lonnnggg time ago. As most of you know I'm not ballin' enough to drop the cash for a pair of Van Staals or Accurate pliers, so I have been rocking these... they have gotten the job done. The pliers would have probably been cool if I rinsed them after each trip... but I don't. So after each trip I usually have brown on everything that is in my little basin in my hatch.

One day while watching American Restorations(Great show BTW) there was one of the little q&a things before commercial about which household cleaner works best on rust... long story short the answer was apple cider vinegar. So last night I decided to give them and a cheap pair of scissors a dunk in the vinegar. I meant to do a before and after pic, but I forgot.... so here are a couple DURING pics! LOL

After 3 hours:


After 9 hours:


You can see the rust falling right off! That's all that gunk at the bottom. I am gonna let it soak for one more day. I pulled them out this morning to see if I could open and close them easily. But it was a little tough. Before putting em in they were much harder to open. But I figure after I pull em out I'll give them a quick scrub and spray em down with some WD-40 and they should be good to go! I hope to get my hands on a decent pair of pliers for Christmas, but if not these have worked so far...lol. So if you got something rusted a little apple cider vinegar goes a lonnnnggggg way! LOL Oh and no, my kids won't be drinking out of that bottle! LOL

MYT

[Memory Maker]

great info ....... thanks ........ got a few things I'll try with that fix .........

[Cliff]

Let me know how it goes, I need to give my pliers a treatment. I hate removing hooks with my hand when blues are in the water.

[mytmouse]

Will do... I'll post final pics once I pull em out.

[Shady]

Nice use of the baby bottle. I always try to clean things up with wd40, but it doesnt really take off the rust, just helps to protect from further rust. Ill have to give this a try next time.

[Grilled]

3 in one oil works wonders!

[J.A. Veil]

Nice use of the baby bottle. I always try to clean things up with wd40, but it doesnt really take off the rust, just helps to protect from further rust. Ill have to give this a try next time.

A few years ago, I got a Leatherman tool rusted up from seawater. I opened all the blades, sprayed liberally with WD-40 and set aside for a few hours to let it soak in. It did not remove all the rusty coloration, but did restore easy pivoting of the blades. I wiped the excess WD-40 off with a rag and it was good to go again.

[mytmouse]

Grilled, I have never heard of the stuff. I saw it for sale online are there any stores locally that it can be bought from?

[echo5oscar]

You can get it at Lowe's/Home Depot. Hardware stores.

[fishon81]

Thanks for the info. As for making them open smoother, soak them in oil for a day, it will beat WD40 by a long shot.

[MetroMan]

In a pinch for one of my non-brass clips for crabbing, I used some Pam (butter flavor)...it worked lol

[dsiekman]

In a pinch for one of my non-brass clips for crabbing, I used some Pam (butter flavor)...it worked lol

Preseasoning? You should have sprinkled a little old bay on them for good measure!

[mytmouse]

Alright the experiment is all done! I must say that I am pleased with the results. One thing that I noticed on the pliers is that after the apple cider treatment that the metal fell rough, even after I hit it with the scotch brite. After further investigation, I did not see the stainless steel mark on the pliers. I think that it must be a soft metal or something and the cider started to break the actual metal down. At least that's my conjecture, these pliers are probably older than me and were used to work on cars and what not, so they could have been purchased like this and over time all the gunk and oil made them feel smooth. I dunno. The scissors came out great! No grainy feel and they open and close like they did when brand new. You can still notice a little rust by the plastic areas, I am sure I could have got it off with the scotch brite, but I got lazy and don't care about that rust. So if you have a pair of decent pliers you should be good to go or go with less days in the vinegar. I was aiming for 2, but it ended up being 3. Anyway here go the pics:

I wish I would have taken a before pic, just remember these weren't sexy pliers by any means when I started using them.



And these are the cheapo scissors from Harbor Freight.


One thing I also read online is that if you are nervous about dunking your pliers/scissors or whatever, the apple cider vinegar can also be rubbed on generously and hit with a scotch brite. After looking at how ugly my pliers look and the fact that I am sure these will rust up again sooner or later, I will definitely be upgraded them! LOL


MYT

[Cliff]

It looks like the vinegar did the job, thanks for sharing this with us. BTW I really like American Restoration as well, so many awesome items get brought back to life on that show.

[Brookmonter]

Break Free CLP will fix anything.