Well that's unfortunate.. man Dawn has worked really, really well for me. Two days in the Dawn and I washed my claws with a nylon scrubber pad like I was doing the dishes and they looked great.

It still takes a little elbow grease.. but no nasty chemical headache.

Thanks to all! Well I have 20 claws so I will try an assortment of remedies. Jim, on the ones that weren't too bad I could see where the dawn would work. Some of these are pretty bad. I might have to resort to having them re-plated.

Trust in Yoda you must. :)

quick update, soaked a claw in vinegar overnight, washed it off with water and a nylon scrubbie and polished it on my buffing wheel, best results yet! Finished it off with a cape cod polishing cloth and, well, this is very livable.

Patiently awaiting some clamp on spurs and this old tub will be a thumping.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Here's something I actually used based upon it's use as a remover for saxophone parts....

OKAY NOW....the comments from the Peanut Gallery are inevitable...but it worked faster than Dawn and was able to get off worse rust....

Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner (blue bottle).

Really. About 10 mins took the rust off a bunch of old Luddy screws/washers and also off of a baseball bat muffler apparatus.

Initially it'll leave a sort of rosy-colored hue to the metal. For the screws I didn't care, but for the more visible muffler parts....I polished off the rosiness with Simichrome polish (like a Brasso but specifically for chrome/nickel). Certainly even just a Dremel buffing wheel would also have worked, post-dunking.

This guy below here is hecka mad, though:

[/COLOR]

I have always leaned towards a vinegar bath. Only recently, I've stepped up to the Apple Cider Vinegar. It seems to work a bit better. Here's the latest example. The first pic is a sample of washers and a screw for my Rogers kit (just prior to the bath). The second pic is a sample of the same washers and screws after two days soaking in Apple Cider Vinegar. Keep in mind, I don't even wipe them off. After two days of soaking, I add water to dilute the smell and then drain the container. I dump the parts out on three folded paper towels (to absorb any liquid). I fold the towels to help absorption. Then I allow them to air dry. That's it.

Another technique I have used on hardware (nuts, bolts, screws, washers)

that works well is... Soak them in water and lemon juice, let them sit overnight, rinse them off and repeat for one more night. I dont know if I would use this technique on the chrome parts because the lemon acids are rather strong.... But it works great on rusty, mucky screws and such :)

They are the same. Acetic acid is acetic acid. Molarity is the variable.

Here's a step by step pic thingy on the acetic acid (apple cider vinegar) soak.

put 'em in the dish

pour over the vinegar

put it in a bag (bad smell)

let it soak

shake it periodically if you want

remove it from the bag

rinse it in warm water (to cut the smell)

let them air dry on a paper towel

Note - I don't have to brush them off or wipe them down at all. No physical labor needed. Pretty cool stuff.

If you really want to kick that formula off put some baking soda in with it.