Thread: Molasses 101

After reading in a number of posts about the ability of molasses to remove rust, I thought I would try a small scale experiment to see for myself. I'm using three 32 oz wide-mouthed energy drink bottles for my laboratory. One is filled with straight feed grade molasses. Another with a 1:5 dilution with water, and a third with a 1:10 mixture of molasses and water.

In each of the bottles I have submerged a rusty blade and samples of celluloid, horn, bone and wood scale material to see what effect a long term exposure will have.
I intend to examine each set of samples once a month for three months. I will only clean the molasses away with water to photograph them and return them to their respective solutions.



In the first bottle I've placed a rusty Dubl Duck blade and the various scales. The wood is, I believe, red oak.



The 1:5 bottle will have a Boker blade



And the 1:10 subjects include a Krusius Bros. blade and the wooden scale is tiger maple.



I didn't have any blades with a lot of active rust. These were the worst of what I had so I hope they will give some indication of a change. (If there is one.)

Regards - Walt

I am in on this for the long haul,,,

Many thanks Walt for doing the work, the razors you picked should give a good indication of how the Molasses works for use in our hobby.

I want to follow this one too. Very interesting.

I too have been intrigued by thought of using molasses to clean blades. I look forward to seeing the results.

I'm signed up for this thread.

I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of meat and potatoes here....my kind of thread. Thanks Walt.

I'm in! As I'm doing my first restoration, one thing I've found is that there is lots of sanding on those blades with lots of active rust. So I hope it works! Double O

I was honing a Wustoff razor this evening with my "molasses laboratory" sitting on my workbench in front of me. I took a break from the honing and noticed activity in the 1:10 mixture. It was effervescing at a pretty good clip. I used to make hard cider in five gallon glass carboys and it looked just like when the yeast was working and sending a steady stream of small bubbles to the top.

Even though I was determined not to fiddle with the material submerged in the mixture, my curiosity got the best of me. When I lifted everything clear of the molasses I didn't see any kind of activity on the surface of the blade or the scales that would indicate there was some sort of reaction taking place. Everything appeared inert and non-reactive.

Then the connection to the cider struck me. Is it possible that there is some sort of wild yeast that could have come in the molasses and is now working on the sugars that are present. The other two bottles don't show any reaction. Could the 1:10 dilution have made the environment more "friendly" for some hitchhiking yeasts to begin fermentation? Or, maybe, it's just the molasses busily eating away the rust and restoring the blade to a showroom finish!

Regards - Walt

Count me in for the long haul!

it will work good . i know alot more about car resto than i do razors and this is the new craz to repair and refurbish body panels and frames on cars. some companys have huge tanks so that they dip the whole car in for several months then power wash clean . sure the pitting that was there will still be there but you are left with clean rust free metal to repair. and there wont be any sand , or any other media left behind in small spaces. another thing is that it is 100% safe to use no harsh chemicals. if it can take a rusted junk car and make it clean enough to start welding and body putty on it will work great for a small razor.

Yet another one watching. Nice to see some pretty good scientific evaluation. If it works 5 years from now it will be "dilute the molasses until it is about the same color as the rust, with practice you will get the hang of dilution." That is a half joke, tongue in cheek in case it comes out wrong.