[AT] De-Rusting

[Stephen Offiler]

It's a bit of a stretch to relate this to old tractors, but I still
think it's a fitting topic.  Here's the situation:

My boss lives on a 300-year-old farm in Massachusetts.  Recently,
while excavating in a corner that hadn't been disturbed in a long,
long time, they began to unearth some iron artifacts, some down as far
as 3' below ground level if I understood correctly.  A few of these
miscellaneous hunks of rust remind me of something that might have
been part of some old horse-drawn cultivator or something.  My task is
to clean them up a bit, with the intention of perhaps putting them on
display in his home if they appear interesting enough.

They are heavily encrusted with rust and a fair amount of soil.  I
started thinking about sandblasting or tumbling (because we have that
equipment here at work) but then I started thinking electrolytic
de-rusting instead.  I am looking for comments from anybody who's been
there, done that... and that would be pretty much every antique
tractor enthusiast, wouldn't it?

- if I go the electrolytic route, how much pre-work should I put into
them before they go in the tank?
- how to pre-clean them, soap and water, mineral spirits, mechanical
means such as wire brush, sandblast, etc?
- is electrolytic the best choice?

Thanks,
Steve O.