[TheForge] stainless rust

[James Binnion]

Bruce,

Citric does a good job of removing surface iron (passivating the  
surface), It is just not as fast as nitric, but a lot safer to deal  
with.

Jim
On May 12, 2009, at 8:59 PM, Bruce Freeman wrote:

> I may be wrong, but I expect the citric acid will remove existing rust
> but not prevent further rusting.
>
> Stainless steel is largely iron with typically >25% chromium and
> nickel.  The iron at the surface will rust.  Passivation is the
> removal of the surface iron to prevent the rust.  Note that SS will
> not rust AWAY.  Nitric is a good choice to remove surface iron because
> it is an oxidizing acid.  It seems to me that any passivation
> treatment would require an oxidizer and either an acid or possibly an
> alkali.  If someone knows a way of passivating without using nitric
> acid, I'd be quite interested.
>
> On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 11:25 PM, Steve howell  
> <ballardforge at msn.com> wrote:
>> Thanks Jim,
>> I think I'll go with the Citrisurf. I try not to handle any more  
>> muriatic than necessary.
>>
>> Steve
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Bruce
> NJ
>
> The total lack of evidence is the surest sign that the conspiracy is  
> working.
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James Binnion
jbin at well.com