I've got an old bread knife that's rusted slightly - no pitting, but most of the blade is discoloured with a fine coating of rust. This happened since it went in the dishwasher - don't think it's happened before in its 100-odd years.
I think it's just ordinary steel - it's quite dull and marked 'Sheffield Steel'. And it's incredibly sharp and cuts bread like nothing else so I'd like to keep it if possible.
What would be the best way to remove the rust and stop it happening again?
rub with some viakal on a cloth (wear rubber gloves)
pass.
Just clean it up with a nylon scourer and then use it. A bit of rust won't do you any harm! ;-)
Scouring pad.
Don’t put it in the dishwasher again. I think superficial rust is a sign of the plating wearing thin. Not much you can do short of replating to stop it rusting again.
It’s happening to quite a lot of our cutlery now. It’s so superficial and easily removed I don’t worry about it now.
Tim
:-)
Around 1970, my new wife purchased 8 sets of cutlery which turned out to be manufactured in Japan.
Still in use but.. occasionally the knife blades show patches of rust after cleaning in the dishwasher. The other items are always spotless.
Our metallurgists will no doubt correct me but I assume the blades are a different stainless composition to allow hardening. Combined with heat and whatever chemicals are found in dishwashers the *stainless* feature is defeated. Rubs off easily but offends the catering dept.:-)
>
We get that (I've assumed there to be some electrolytic reaction between adjacent bits of cutlery in the doshwisher). SWMBO then chucks the spotty item over to me - since she assumes a hand wash will erase rust marks.
It took a decade to get over the: "It can't be a rust mark. Stainless_ steel doesn't rust." argument.
Not a metallurgist but stainless forms a thin layer of chromium oxide which then stops oxygen attacking any iron atoms in the lattice. Mild scouring from a dishwasher powder may remove the oxide layer. Dilute acids do the same.
I have a set of 30 year old Japanese manufactured chef's knives. No dishwasher but the only two show rust. One has a flaw on the spine were a spot of rust of approx 1mm diameter appears and is easily removed with a scouring pad*. It's only in the last 10 years that this spot of rust has shown up. The other blade that is prone to some very minor surface rust is the very flexible blade designed for filleting fish (etc.). I assume this blade is a different metal composition. Rust only occurs if the blade is left anytime still wet. This blade is usually fully dried straight after washing and not left in te cutlery pot to drain and dry off naturally. Again, any rust is easily removed with a scouring pad*.
*Scouring (balls) I useNote: with Christmas only a few months away these "Come in White Transparent Plastic Gift Box"
They are pound shop type products - 6 for £1.
A little vinegar and a good rinse.
Putting good knives - rather than cutlery- in a dishwasher is best avoided.
Hmm.. Recipe for a weeks bread and water here. *Useful* gifts are outlawed!
It could be that if it were plated that the plating has now worn off with sharpening or cleaning and basically its now down to the steel at the business edge.
Brian
A mantra from our metallurgy lectures doing Mech Eng in the 60's was that items sold as stainless steel wer often neither stainless nor steel.
I remember walking into my supplier and asking about stainless steel, upon which the assistant pulled a thick book from under that counter;
"What sort?."
Well some is magnetic and some isn't.
I thoroughly admire your determination to keep this knife in service, sir! However, I'm confused here. If it's a breadknife and it's 100 years old, surely all its teeth have worn away over that timeframe. The fact that it still cuts at all is something of a miracle, let alone it cuts like nothing else!
I was confused, too. It must be something to do with how I read but I was tripped up by the words "dull" and "sharp".
I've a bread knife over 50 years old, and it is as it was when new. Bright and sharp. Mind you, I've only been using it to cut bread.
The breadknife most often employed in this house was once part of my Mother's 'bottom drawer' items, collected in the late 1930s (so OK, not
100 years yet). Over the years it has been terribly abused (once used to cut down a privet hedge that had grown out of bounds) but still cuts very well. It has very fine teeth which were evidently hand finished - judging by the uneven spacing in some places. Made in Sheffield (of course) but the maker's name has worn off.
mild acid eg citric and/or scourer
Avoid wetting it, wipe dry whenever it gets wet. Wipe with veg oil. The Victorian rotary knife cleaners show the lengths they went to to avoid wet cleaning & remove rust.
Yes. My kitcar has a bare, stainless-steel, monocoque body (and it has not rusted in 26 years). Magnets do stick to the body.
It's not shiny (like stainless) but is extraordinarily sharp - at least as effective as the Victorinox sertated bread knife I inexplicably lost in a recent house move.
As has this, so far as I know :-) It was my gramdmother's (born around 1900).
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