I have this very old round saw blade, from an old saw mill. My aunt is going to paint on it for me. Well, you can imagine that the condition of the blade looks awful. It only has one tooth broken on it so it will be a great piece of art when it's done. How do I get that rust and crud off my blade without scrubbing until my hands are raw?

IF it is really bad you can sand it down and then soak it in something I am not sure if kerosene would work. I forget what I use to soak rusty stuff in.
Then you can get some rust converter from the auto parts section and pour it all over on the saw and let it soak for a bit and pat it with an old rag. Read the directions because if you get the rust on the rag or the brush and dip it into the bottle it 'kills' the effectiveness.

I thought there was some kind of gel or something that would just work all of that stuff off.. Hmmmm.. have you ever used the rust converter stuff before?

Yeah the rust converter is a gel but I am pretty sure there is a liquid you can use first if it is that bad. The gel you are probably thinking off is Naval Jelly, also sold at the auto parts store. I think the rust converter works better.


Here are some things that might work
gel rust remover - Google Search

rust converter - Google Product Search

I bought my last bottle at Wal Mart in the auto section.

What is the diameter of this blade please, Tralyn? One of the things that I do for a living is that I refinish both metal and brass. You might not have to go to a lot of work or spend a lot of money in order to clean this blade. Especially if it's going to be painted. But, that does depend on the size of it.

Thanks!

Its actually stored at my brothers house right now but I'd have to say it's 2 - 3 feet in diameter, with about a 1/2 inch diameter hole in the middle of it. Both sides are to be painted if that makes a difference at all.

Hi, Tralyn!

I did get your private message and thank you for reminding me about your thread! I'm sorry that I didn't return to this thread earlier - got sidetracked by a bunch of other ones.

Your blade is quite large, so buffing it out with a brass brush wheel probably isn't feasible for a number of reasons. Don't need to get into the reasons here.

Here's what I would recommend, and it's simple to do. First, use a palm sander of some kind on both surfaces of it using 180 grit abrasive (sand) paper. If the rust is really bad, then using lower grits like 80 and then working up to higher grits will work. If no palm sander is available, then you could try a sanding block of some kind to which you could affix the abrasive paper or hold it in place with your hand. If using a hand sanding block, you could cut the paper to overlap some the sides of the block. A piece of wood cut to fit the size of your hand should work just fine.

You would then sand the rust off. Even if you were to use some kind of gel, that's not going to guarantee that the surfaces are going to be smooth enough for you to paint on them. So, sanding of some kind is going to be necessary anyway.

No matter how you sand, please be sure to use a mask over your nose of some kind.

After the bulk of the rust is removed, then since this saw blade is prone to rusting, you are going to need to be coating it with something in order to prohibit the rust from forming again and also to provide a surface on which paint of any kind can be applied.

So, if you were to put any kind of water-based finish on it, even a water-based primer, there would still be the possibility for rust to form. I would recommend getting something like Deft lacquer in cans and then coating it a few times on both sides. You could set it up on a card table outside on cans to get it up from the surface of the table so that it's not directly on the table when you spray it. A semi-gloss of the lacquer spray should do the trick. I recommend Deft, because I have had so much success with it over a number of decades in the refinishing of brass. I know use a higher solids content of lacquer for the metals that I refinish. But, in order to use them, you have to have a compressor and a spray gun. They are way to thick to be available in spray cans. But, for your purposes, Deft should work just fine! Besides that, the nozzles on the spray cans of Deft are the Cadillac in the industry as far as nozzles on spray cans!

Please be sure to follow all directions and adhere to all the precautions on the cans of lacquer.

From there, the surfaces on it should be smooth, so that any kind of paint can be applied.