Molasses 101

[Walt]

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