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Old 19th September 2012, 11:14 PM   #9
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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Sulphuric acid is even more effective if speed is the criterion. Sulphuric acid will clean a blade in minutes. Aqua regia is even faster.

I used to use pure Queensland Pineapple juice.

On a heavily rusted blade rust removal could take two weeks, but most of the rust was usually removed in the first couple of days. After that each time it was removed from the juice it was necessary to work over the blade with steel picks of various sizes from a bearing scraper to a saddler's needle and pick off the hard rust before putting it back into the juice.

Then the Australia company "Golden Circle" was bought by an American firm.

They stopped selling pure Queensland pineapple juice and started to import pineapple juice concentrate from South America. The stuff tastes like sh***, you'd need to be dying of thirst to drink it, and even then you'd probably think twice before letting it pass your lips. As for its use as a keris cleaner, well, it works for maybe two days, then it goes dead.

I no longer use pineapple juice to clean blades, for the simple reason that I can no longer buy it. Even though Australia produces so many pineapples they sometimes get plowed back into the ground we have a profit driven international company importing pure concentrate of horse pi** from South America and trying to sell it to us as Pineapple juice. Be a cold day in hell before I buy another can of this garbage. You can't drink it, and its useless for cleaning purposes.

Another international company did a similar thing with Arnotts Biscuits, who when they were a locally owned company used to produce what were arguable the world's finest mass produced biscuits. It took these business geniuses maybe 20 years, but they have finally got that biscuit company to the position where its share of super market shelf space has shrunk to the point where you almost can't see the brand any more. The quality of Arnotts Biscuits dropped to the point where nobody except those without taste buds buy them.

Anyway, we don't use chocolate biscuits to de-rust keris, so it probably doesn't matter much.

These days I use ordinary household vinegar for de-rusting, and next time I have some blades to do I intend to try citric acid.
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