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Thread: Electrolysis

  1. #1
    Beaker bevansmw's Avatar
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    Default Electrolysis

    Finally got everything together and the first razor went in today. So here's what I'm using.

    1) 6A SEC P/S
    (normally use this to help my RC Battery charger charge more than 6 cells)

    2) Plain Steel sheet metal from Home Depot.

    This was cut and made into a little box as can be seen, all sides are electrically connected by sheet metal that was cut and bent into 90 degree angles at the sides and bolted together with plain steel bolts. This is being used as the anode, positive side during the process. Note here that if you use stainless steel you'll end up with a toxic solution after the process that is really poisonous and would have to be taken to a hazmat center or something to be disposed of. Also plated steel, zinc plated or galvanized should be avoided, need just some plain steel.

    3) 100% Sodium Carbonate

    This is used in the water to make an alkaline solution. Sodium Hydroxide could also be used. Both of these have a lot of different names, I found the sodium carbonate at a pool & spa supply shop used as a pH increaser for pools.

    4) The little white box

    This is used to limit the current being put out from my power supply. It's just a switch, with a fuse and an ammeter on the positive side followed by a potentiometer 0-2.2k ohms and some I/O connections to connect to the power supply and the razor and sheet metal. This allows me to see the amount of current during the process and adjust it via the potentiometer, I started the process with the pot turned all of the way up - 2.2k ohms - and then turned it down to desired current level. I'm using about 2mA per square centimeter, something like that.

    5) Connections.

    These were all home-made, I bought a bunch of alligator clips and some wire at home-depot and made the long cables so the power supply could be inside and bucket outside. I'm in an apartment and don't exactly have a garage to do this in. If doing this the positive connection goes to the sheet metal and negative connection to whatever you want to remove rust from, in this case the razor.

    6) The razor is a rusted Genco that is in a pretty poor state right now.


    Ok so everything is in and this is going, hit a little snag about 3 minutes in as a filter capacitor in my power supply decided to blow it's guts all over the place. Nevertheless the P/S is still working, so for safety I stopped it and moved the whole bit onto my Lanai (balcony). It's stamped made in Hong Kong ... never had a problem with it charging my batteries before duno maybe the low current caused a problem. Then again I haven't used this thing in over a year ... well it's still going. Will update when I take the razor out in a day or so.
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    Last edited by bevansmw; 05-06-2008 at 11:39 PM. Reason: Listed the wrong base used!

  2. #2
    Senior Member blabbermouth ChrisL's Avatar
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    Excellent. Someone on B&B was trying the same thing but that project fizzled (he wanted rusty test razors and didn't receive any from others).

    What I want to know from this is:

    Will pitting be replaced by new metal effectively filling in the pits?

    If so, will that metal be solidly black oxidized colored metal that can't be polished off defeating the purpose of bringing a razor back to it's cosmetically good condition?

    Please keep us posted.

    Chris L
    "Blues fallin' down like hail." Robert Johnson
    "Aw, Pretty Boy, can't you show me nuthin but surrender?" Patti Smith

  3. #3
    Never a dull moment hoglahoo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chrisl View Post
    What I want to know from this is:

    Will pitting be replaced by new metal effectively filling in the pits?

    If so, will that metal be solidly black oxidized colored metal that can't be polished off defeating the purpose of bringing a razor back to it's cosmetically good condition?

    If that were to take place, I personally would be both shocked and excited at the same time. (sanding tiny holes out of a blade by hand is the pits!) I have been tempted lately to get plugged into razor restoration, as my current razor sanding work is coming down to the wire. However this test turns out though, I'm sure it will get a positive reaction from the users here!
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    Beaker bevansmw's Avatar
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    Had a little scare today when I got back from Aikido practice. The elevators in the building were all stopped and someone told me that they were stopped because of a fire alarm on the 24th or 25th floor ... I thought um... I live on the 24th floor and I left the electrolysis going on my lanai when I left .. and earlier that capacitor did blow up ... so I went up the stairs to the 24th floor. After 2 and a half hours of training this wasn't exactly what I was looking forward to . . . so I got up to the 24th floor more exhausted than I was when I first got home. No fire in the hall ... looking good so far... to my apartment, door knob isn't hot ... opening there's no smoke .. looking in nothing scortched... over to the lanai and the meter still shows the same amount of current going as when I left it... maybe it was someone else ... yay my stuff isn't all burnt up .. i did have the glass door closed though and nothing flammable in the vicinity of the power supply just in case. Guess I'm in the clear this time.

  5. #5
    Never a dull moment hoglahoo's Avatar
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    Your avatar!
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    Please forgive my ignorance once again. What is the goal of this exercise?

  7. #7
    Beaker bevansmw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by icedog View Post
    Please forgive my ignorance once again. What is the goal of this exercise?
    Just to see how well electrolysis will work for removing rust on a razor, what the end product will come out looking like. Sort of just playing around with it really.

    I took a look at it when I got home today, the steel that is being used as the anode is building up a lot of rust, the razor is looking more like metal for sure and less noticable on the rust. I didn't take it out yet, as I just got home from work and today was absolutely horrible, extremely busy - 12 hours non-stop. I'll pull it out and stop it tomorrow and see how it looks.

  8. #8
    Beaker bevansmw's Avatar
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    Ok so the razor came out just a little while ago and here's what I did.

    Cleaned the razor off under hot water after removing it with gloves, didn't want to get the solution on my hands. When it came out what was rust on the razor was now steel, so all of that rust build-up that I didn't remove was all a grayish metal on the razor. I wire brushed it a little (shouldnt of done this) to see if the grayish metal would come off which it did, but then consequently so did a chip from the edge in the most rusted area of the razor (this one was junk imo anyhow). After I saw that I decided just to sand it with 800 grit to remove the scale with some wd-40. So I did this and ended up with what you see in the second two photos of the razor, I sanded it for under 5 minutes only with the 800 grit.

    It looks like the majority of what would've been pitting had I sanded it down initially was filled with a grayish metal, some pitting did show and can be seen in the photo but this was only in the most heavily rusted area near the edge where the chip came off (think that was just solid rust prior to the electrolysis). The tang cleaned up the best from the looks of it, not much grayish metal there and the name of the razor can now be clearly read, you couldn't read "Honor" on the one side of the tang prior to the electrolysis and could only make out a couple letters of the 'Genco' wording on the other side. My steel anode looks absolutely disgusting after the electrolysis it has huge formations of rust on it, which was expected during the process.

    I don't plan on doing much more with this one, might do some lower grit sanding on it just to see if the grayish metal cleans up at all, but I think that is there to stay as this is likely the rust that was converted back to iron during the process.

    Edit: After hand-sanding for a few more minutes on a low grit, not really being careful (didn't really care for this one) I cracked the blade near the heel where the big chipping and pits are, also I noticed the grayish metal was coming off more and beginning to more-so reveal the pitting that was underneath it. When the grayish metal was left on the surface it was smooth to the touch. I pitched this one in the garbage and put one with not-so-much rust in for a second attempt, but pretty sure it'll come out very similar. In the end I think this method would only really be good if you don't mind the grayish metal on the blade.
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    Last edited by bevansmw; 05-09-2008 at 05:45 AM.

  9. #9
    WHAT?! (Member) paulo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bevansmw View Post
    Edit: After hand-sanding for a few more minutes on a low grit, not really being careful (didn't really care for this one) I cracked the blade near the heel where the big chipping and pits are
    Man, these allergies are killing me today, I have to cough... <COUGH!>Hydrogen embrittlement!</COUGH!>

    I don't know for sure, but if hydrogen embrittlement is occuring due to the electrolysis, even if you didn't crack the blade like you did, it might make it more likely to develop microchipping when you hone the razor... until you honed right through the embrittled layer... and you'd be cursing your luck or tossing the razor before you got to that point, I would imagine!

    It appears tumbling with walnut media loaded with polishing compound gives the most consistent, best looking results, with no risk of hydrogen embrittlement.

  10. #10
    Senior Member smythe's Avatar
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    This experiment is getting interesting.

    bevansmw, the steel could hydrogen embrittled.

    I know it's tempting but I would suggest you NOT try to sand, scrape, brush or polish the blade, just wash it thoroughly and set it aside for a few days so the hydrogen can diffuse out of the steel.

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