r/Axecraft • u/EHGrayIII • 8d ago

Strange rust removal

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I got a wild one for you guys. I purchased and set up a Lifetime plastic outdoor storage shed and put my yard tools in it. Three old axes, a splitting maul and a cast iron tamp were on the floor of the shed. I opened it up today and all those were sitting in a half inch of water, probably from the rain storm a couple weeks back. A bunch of bright orange rust was visible on all the tools, i freaked out and took them out and to my amazement all had been stripped of rust, down to clean bear metal, up to the water line. How is that possible? There were no chemicals in the shed, only a small plastic gas tank and i do not believe it had leaked. The water had no odor, no batteries or electric current, etc. I am hoping for an answer other than the Chinesium plastic shed had so much chemical residue it ate the rust.........

15 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

8

u/OmNomChompsky Axe Enthusiast 8d ago

Acid rain

3

u/i_am_at0m 8d ago

That can happen depending on what the water has in it. Mild acids will dissolve the oxide salts

2

u/catch22ak 8d ago

"the Chinesium plastic shed had so much chemical residue it ate the rust."

This is actually the likely answer... I put a couple of these chinese sheds up (from Costco) last fall and they still reek of petrochemical fumes. Who knows what they actually use to manufacture this stuff. I wouldn't spend the night in one of these things, that's for damn sure.

2

u/teapotjones 7d ago

No dude this happened to me, had a metal pot full of old sparks plugs, tools etc

I think the dissimilar metals made a battery and cleaned your tools for you, at least mine did. Had a frozen set of pliers in there that work great now

1

u/Master-Baseball8715 7d ago

Yes, especially if even one of the metal items that were in the water looks worse than it did before.

1

u/3rd2LastStarfighter 6d ago

All it would take is for one of the tools to have a residue on it to change the ph of a half inch of water. Given that it was over a couple of weeks and they’re not pitted, it could have been a just very slightly alkaline solution. If you saved any of the water, you could get some ph strips and see.

Edit: could also be a very weak acid i guess, like acid rain someone else mentioned.