Aluminium Foil

Hey found this in Wikipedia: Aluminium foil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Polishing steel

Aluminium foil is used to remove rust from steel and polishes steel surfaces by hand by rubbing it with aluminium foil dipped in water. The aluminium foil is softer than steel, and does not scratch the surface. Heat is generated by rubbing friction, the aluminium oxidizes to produce aluminium oxide. Aluminium has a higher reduction potential than iron, and therefore leaches oxygen atoms away from any rust on the steel surface. Aluminium oxide is harder than steel, and the microscopic grains of aluminium oxide produced create a fine metal polishing compound that smoothes the steel surface to a bright shine."

Anyone hear of that before?

Never heard of that before but I am sure going to try it out when I get another fixer upper of a razor. Thanks for posting that tidbit of info.

Bob

Wet aluminum foil (the cheaper and thinner the better because it has softer edges) is the ticket for removing anything burnt onto your chrome pipes. If your passenger wears wind pants on your harley and they burn to the pipe its nearly impossible to get off. Alum foil will do it.

Donot use foil on anything softer, i.e. powder coating, gold foiling, plastics paints etc. It works wonders on stainless and chrome, so i. Sure it works on polished steel too.
Use common sense and test in a less conspicuous area.

Thanks Lamppa for your confirmation that it actually works. I was wondering about this being any bit valid.

Chocolate can polish metal as well.

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Originally Posted by Theseus

Chocolate can polish metal as well.

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Oooooooooohhhhhh thats a new one. What chemicals in the chocolate aid in polishing?

oil/fat from the chocolate is the thing that polish it, i also saw that chocolate trick in a documentary about a guy doing survival training for couch survivors;) tv, he polished the bottom of a soda can to use it to reflect the sun to make fire. i would still just use maas, blue magic, autosol, brasso, or some other polishing compound made for each of the different metals your polishing there are many colors of those bars, think i have all exept the one for only gold, i have normal for gold that works on other things aswell but there are 1 that is only used for gold, cant be used on other things, found it here the other day looking thrue a gold store in search for polishing compounds. It looked like liquid see thrue honey with orange flakes in it.

I meant specifically what oily/fatty chemicals.

I saw it on Mythbusters once. aluminum foil and coca cola. They said it worked. But I sure never knew the science of it. That is pretty cool if that's actually what happens that makes it work.

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Originally Posted by 111Nathaniel

Anyone hear of that before?

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Careful your razor doesn't burst into flame. Sounds like the formula for Thermite . ;)

Do you crumple it up first or just rub the razor with a flat piece?

Michael

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Careful your razor doesn't burst into flame. Sounds like the formula for Thermite . ;)

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Made the mistake once of not thouroughly cleaning the blaster at work when switching from steel to aluminum shot. It wasn't pretty.:)

Good blaze ?

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Good blaze ?

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No fire, but the thermic reaction welded the parts I was blasting to the blast cabinet and melted the metal framed filters in the dust collector.

Probably just as well. The fires don't die easily.

I tried testing this out tonight. I was rubbing for about 50 minutes, not a lot of difference. It does work but slowly. I'm thinking the very hard steel of razors may slow down the small capabilities of this idea. took off water stains and blackish rust really good though

I tried this after I saw the Thread as well. I started out with just a 4x4 inch piece and began using it flat but it tore fairly quick so ended up doubling over a couple times. Eventually I wrapped the foil inside a small piece of leather I normally use to polish and that worked much better as, even when crumpled up, it held and made contact well under the leather.

The razor I'm working on is a WB etched with "Special" on the blade and even working on the deeper rust and water stains around the etching it did not affect it. Definitely slow and makes a heck of a mess with tons of tiny little pieces of foil all over but it did seem effective and faster than Flitz and getting rid of bigger rust spots.

I definitely need to get more practice in with sandpaper but not long ago I grabbed a small piece of 100 grit that I though was 1000, seeing just the zeros on the back and not taking my time, then gave it a few swipes and gouged the metal deeply. :( So, still bummed enough about that experience I'm way more interested in trying different, slower and less aggressive methods even if it costs me time and Carpal Tunnel. ;)

Hmmmm, well you can use coca cola to clean your car battery terminals as well; just have to keep an eye on it. Any dark soda would work too, they all have small amounts of citric acid as a preservative in them.

Just don't chew on it with tooth fillings after!